"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

"Bill Grey" wrote in message
...

"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

"Bill Grey" wrote in message
...


My labrador was entered at Crufts, an I sometimes think the judges look
at the wrong end of the lead!

Bill

Unfortunately, I have to agree that this does happen sometimes. *If* the
judge is not ethical and an exhibitor will soon be a judge at another
championship show where they will be entering their own dog. My friend
does not do that.
Neither do I. I used to judge and gave best of breed to a dog that was
winning a lot and had a big fault, purely because she was the best of a
bad bunch.
I was horrified to find that when I entered my own dog when this person
was judging some time later, I won my class and the report she sent to
the dog newspapers - the dog's critique - was *identical* to the one I'd
sent in for her dog, except of course she changed "her" to "him"
How blatant is that to say, you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours?
I was appalled.
I lost any respect for her immediately.
Fortunately, although it is commonly believed that the dog show scene is
fixed, most judges will put the best dog first, regardless of who is at
the other end of the lead. Those that do not give it a bad name.

Tina




Hi Tina,

We seem to have had similar experiences with regard to judges. I thought
Cruft's would be at least fair, but regrtettably some form of old pals act
won the day.

At least I got to Cruft's but even when my Lab qualified, one onlooker,
who wasn't very complimentary said about the judge - " She wasn't a
Labrador judge" anyway. He was of course hinting that he didn't think my
dog was good enough and that a pal's dog should have qualified.

No, he was not saying that at all, quite the reverse, Bill. He was saying
"she is not a Labrador judge and may not know a good one when she sees
one.."

It's great to qualify a dog to go to Crufts but sometimes it's "many are
picked but few are chosen" when you get there..

Tina

"®óñ© © ²°¹°" wrote in message
...
Anyway, how did this stupid thread start, it's got nothing to do with
gardening and I'm bored with it.


Unless you are still on dial-up, in which case you have a legitimate
complaint by paying to download an OT drifted thread I suggest you ignore
it. Some of us are still interested in this.

In article ,
Christina Websell wrote:

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 seen an animal that I thought was a cat from its gait and,
when I got closer, it was a dog - but it was about the size of an
average domestic cat and looked much like an overgrown caterpillar.
I doubt that there are any medium to large dogs that have been
bred to that degree of ridiculousness.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2010-08-22 17:12:30 +0100, "Christina Websell"
said:

snip

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

By those of that frame of mind we'd be ridiculed whether we saw such a
creature ourselves or not. On the whole, farmers deal with life, birth
and death on an almost daily basis and are not frequently given to
hysterical imaginings, either. Several round here have seen big cats, so
this is not a single experience 'imagined' by Ray! Iwent up there with
him the next night, checked the distance and the torch beam and its colour
register, if those are the right words. I tried it on several plants of
different colours and it didn't bleach them out. As he isn't an
unnecessarily imaginative or hysterical type, I was surprised to see how
shaken he looked when he came back to the house and then he explained it
all to me. It was a nasty moment but there hasn't been a repeat. We'll
see if it reappears on a fine and dark night - even in the interests of
wildlife research, I'm not going out at 11 on a wet dark evening. ;-)

Oh, go on! It's unlikely it will be seen again anyway and even if it was it
will run away like last time. Go together and look. I would (if I had
someone to go with) but a cat 2 ft high sitting up I wouldn't go alone.
It's not a cougar but even so..that it is biggish cat and I'd prefer someone
with me if I wanted to try and see it again.
It's not a lynx either.

Tina

On Sun, 22 Aug 2010 18:00:46 +0100, Sacha wrote:

Several round here have seen big cats, so this is not a single
experience 'imagined' by Ray! Iwent up there with him the next night,

Not during the next day to check for tracks? Seems odd that these
animals don't leave tracks, though I guess if you get a nasty shock
the last thing on your mind is to go looking for tracks... Having
said that I doubt any panther sized cat is likely to attack a human
unless you corner or startle it. Make some noise as you move to where
it was so it knows you are coming and it will be far to busy moving
away in good time to become cornered.

--
Cheers
Dave.

In article o.uk,
Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Sun, 22 Aug 2010 18:00:46 +0100, Sacha wrote:

Several round here have seen big cats, so this is not a single
experience 'imagined' by Ray! Iwent up there with him the next night,

Not during the next day to check for tracks? Seems odd that these
animals don't leave tracks, though I guess if you get a nasty shock
the last thing on your mind is to go looking for tracks...

It is surprisingly rare for the conditions to be right to find most
animal tracks, and cats are notorious for not leaving them.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article ,
Janet writes
In article 32d678f7-ea30-4130-9b69-
,
says...

So if a giant Black Cat crosses your path does that mean more luck
than with a normal black cat crossing your path?

Yep; time to buy a lottery ticket :-)

Janet


Just a quick reply using your email Janet. Thanks for snipping all the
other replies, sometimes on a long thread it is really time consuming to
keep having to scroll pages of stuff i have already read to get to the
bottom and the latest comments! Not too bad in the day but late at night
I sometimes just skip those I can't read quickly

I am assuming that some people are receiving their latest stuff at the
top?

Janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk