They’ll primp, they’ll hiss, and the champion may win by a whisker as more than 120 cats compete in St. Paul’s annual feline beauty contest this weekend.
And in the midst of it all will be Walter Hutzler. The opera-singer-turned-cat-judge is in town to pick favorites during the Saintly City Cat Club’s Annual Championship & Household Pet Cat Show today and Sunday.
“I find this thing that I do very fun,” said Hutzler, who lives in New York. “I have a good time with it, and I try to share that with the people, but that doesn’t take away from my seriousness. I’m deadly serious.”
Serious about cats and what they represent to their owners.
“Breeders have their umbilical cords tied to their cats – (winning) means a lot to them,” Hutzler said. “Their personalities, their well-being, their image of themselves are all being reflected in what they’re producing, and they want the reward and the acknowledgment. It can be very precarious as a judge.”
Much of his social life is spent in the cat world, Hutzler said. The owner of two Maine coon cats – named Ms. Ann Richards and Huey Long – he spends most of his weekends in the busier cat show season giving out ribbons at events around the country.
A judge since 1970, it’s been more than two decades since he first came to the Saintly City show, now in its 36th year.
“Saintly City is a really unique place because it’s associated with the (St. Paul Winter Carnival), so they get a lot of people coming in to look at the cats,” Hutzler said. “That’s what Saintly City, to me, is all about – you get to see a lot of cats that you wouldn’t ordinarily get to see.”
Linda Mae Baker, manager of the show, said Hutzler is probably the event’s most colorful judge.
“He’s very dramatic,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s because he’s from New York or what.”
Hutzler said his judging style grew from his theatrical background. He was an opera singer for a number of years but gave it up in the 1960s. He then flirted with being a businessman but walked away from that when cat judging interfered with his work.
“My father used to say, ‘What kind of money can you make out of there?’ ” Hutzler said of working cat shows. “Because it was always the same people complaining, ‘He’s going to give up a great job to become a cat judge!’ ”
It’s not exactly a high-paying occupation, said Hutzler, who also worked as a hair colorist through much of his judging career. People do it, he said, for “the honor and idea that somebody thinks you should…decide the best (cats).”
Hutzler said he sees himself as a referee and the cat show as a sports event.
To properly judge a cat, one must weigh the characteristics of each breed against the standard and find the cat that is the best example of that standard, Hutzler said.
“There is a highly technical approach you have to use to evaluate the cat’s structure,” he said. “After all of that, it becomes a beauty contest.”
Of course, some subjectivity is involved in the process, and not everyone is always happy with judges’ decisions, Hutzler said. Certain exhibitors enter their cats in shows across the country, spending a great deal of money on travel costs and entry fees – and expect their cats to do well.
“Sometimes you get into this popularity contest…and it’s like a presidential campaign,” he said.
The internal politics of cat shows are not necessarily a bad thing, said Hutzler, who described his views on cats to be more progressive than traditional.
“There are a lot of breeds that are very self-serving,” he said. “They don’t want to open up their ranks to other colors, other lengths of hair and so forth. There’s always that battle, even in the cat fancy.”
And while the competition is important to cat shows, so is the celebration of humans’ feline friends, Hutzler said.
“Cat shows are remarkable places,” he said. “Nowhere else in the world can you see a whole bunch of cats beautifully dressed and beautifully prepared.”
IF YOU GO
What: Saintly City Cat Club Annual Championship & Household Pet Cat Show
When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. today; 9 a.m.-4 p.m. (or until finals end) Sunday. Note: St. Paul Winter Carnival royalty are scheduled to crown the king and queen of the household pet category at 3 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Exhibition Hall at RiverCentre, 175 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul.
Cost: Tickets are available at the door for $4 for adults and $3 for seniors and children 10 or younger.
More information: saintlycitycatclub.org
Copyright 2012 Pioneer Press.
