"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2010-08-20 22:23:25 +0100, hugh ] said:

In message , Christina Websell
writes

"hugh" ] wrote in message
...


From my experience having judged at Crufts

Wow! You did? Fantastic! What breeds did you judge? It is really a
lifetime achievement to do that.

If you see commas where there aren't any then it's not surprising you
can't tell a cat from a dog.

is not necessarily any endorsement for being able to recognise a dog.

I can assure you that anyone who is invited to judge at Crufts knows the
difference between the gait of a cat and a dog that runs across the road
in
front of their car.
I don't understand your hostility, is it a perceived class thing?
Eh?

Having been involved in show dogs for over 22 years I have met all levels
of people from all sorts of backgrounds who have judged at Crufts.
"Class" doesn't come into it except perhaps in your mind- it's a
competence thing and many who have judged at crufts have never had the
privilege of going over my dogs because I had no interest in their
opinion.

HOW I wish the Crufts judge who lived just up the lane from us was still
alive. I can imagine her remarks if she saw this sort of nonsense from
someone claiming to have judged at Crufts! It's a fact that some people
have seen large cats, including my husband who is not given to an
over-wrought imagination or taking fright in the dark. He's more than
used to walking around in the pitch dark checking the nursery so a
domestic cat is hardly likely to be an object of alarm and amazement.
--

My friend ( who really does know a dog when she sees one even though she has
judged at Crufts!) would agree with you, Sacha.
She is familiar with the gait of both dogs and cats when running and if she
said it was a black cat the size of a leopard she saw, then that's what it
was.
I have no explanation - she never saw it again. I've never had this
experience (fortunately ;-) )
Why is it that just because *we* haven't seen one ourselves, it has to be
ridiculed?

Tina