Show, breed, pet: how a kitten's class is really decided, and why you shouldn't trust grand promises.
Sale contracts usually say:
"The breeding quality of the kitten is determined by the Breeder at the time of sale."
This means the breeder decides the class on their own. Honest breeders, however, understand an important point: the class of a kitten aged 2–3 months is only a guess, not backed up by any actual show results.
The cat is regularly nominated for Best and places in WCF rings and at single-breed shows.
This class can't be determined in a kitten aged 2–3 months: only after several shows and assessments by different judges.
The cat is awarded a CAC: it meets the breed standard and is approved for breeding.
Most honest breeders give kittens this class unless they have obvious faults.
The kitten has visible deviations from the breed standard, which doesn't make it any less loved as a pet.
Given when there's an obvious fault against the standard. At shows such a cat may get a "CAC limit" or be disqualified.
Sale contracts for pedigree kittens usually say: "The breeding quality of the kitten is determined by the Breeder at the time of sale."
What this means is that the Breeder decides the kitten's class as they see fit. Sensible breeders, however, understand the following.
Show class isn't decided by the breeder's opinion alone. To find out whether a cat is show class, you need to take it to several shows, see what results it gets and hear what different judges think.
If a cat is regularly nominated for Best and places in Best, in WCF rings or at single-breed shows, you can say it's show class. If it just gets a CAC and nothing more, then sadly it isn't show class: it's breed class. And if it gets a "CAC limit" or is disqualified, it isn't even breed, it's pet.
But all of this applies to an adult cat. Only once a cat has grown up can you tell which class it belongs to. With a kitten of 2–3 months, the class is just the breeder's guess, with nothing real to base it on. Even if you show the kittens to a judge, instead of the breeder's guesses you get the judge's guesses, and nothing more. None of us is clairvoyant. Besides, judges are far more experienced and have seen a great many kittens and adult cats, so they are very careful with words like "show class".
With all this in mind, sensible and honest breeders don't raise false hopes in buyers by labelling their kittens "show".
The only people who do that are those who want to sell their kittens quickly and for more, or who have a sincere but much too high opinion of their cats. Breeders who are realistic and don't want trouble later with disappointed buyers put "breed class" on all their kittens except those with an obvious fault, which get "pet".
If the breeder thinks a kitten is very good and may turn out to be "show" later on, they tell the buyers so in conversation and more cautiously: "I think this kitten has potential…"
Have a look at the kittens available at Home in Raksi