Barbarossa a.k.a Bossa is my cat. Bossa’s first trip abroad was to Hong Kong in April of this year, when he attended two Cat Fancier’s Association (CFA) licensed shows there. Bossa has been competing locally in our local Malaysian CFA Cat Shows since the start of the 2014/15 Show season which begins in May 2014 and ended in April 2015. He obtained the Grand Premiership (GP) title at the start of the show season. At that time, both the breeder, Zikhafri Maine Coons and I decided to show Bossa until the end of the show season as we wanted to gauge how far he could go. Bossa himself is such a natural show cat and enjoys the attention from the judges, breeders and the cat-loving public.
At the beginning of this year, Bossa was ranked 7th in the Premiership category for Malaysia. Both the breeder and I thought that this was the highest that he could attain. As it is, being ranked seventh is quite an achievement as he always have a tough time finalizing in the All-Breed
category due the large numbers of Maine Coons competing in Malaysian CFA Cat Shows.
The next title after GP is Divisional Winner (DW) awarded to the Top cats of both categories. The number of cats eligible for the DW title is decided by the management of CFA. Malaysia, being a small country, (compared to China for instance) have very few sanctioned CFA Shows. As a result, normally only the Top 3 Cats of both categories would be eligible for the DW title. In February 2015, CFA announced that the Top 5 Cats of both categories would be eligible for the title. That was the start of our mission to ensure that Bossa gets the DW title. After further discussion, we decided to send Bossa to the Cat shows in Hong kong as there were two shows in HK against one show in Malaysia in April (there were no shows in March, both in Malaysia & HK. There was a show in Bangkok, however if Bossa participated in that show he would have to be quarantined for 6 months before his next overseas trip).
Once this was decided, it was a mad rush to prepare for the trip. Cats entering Hong Kong had to be micro-chipped, be up-to-date in terms of their vaccinations and also had to be vaccinated against Rabies. Bossa was mico-chippped when he was five months old and his vaccinations are current, but he was not Rabies proofed. We were lucky that there were about 6 weeks before the first show in HK, as the shots had to be administered at least one-month before entry to HK. Once that was done, it was another rush to compile his export/import permits (to re-enter Malaysia), to reserve his air passage (they travel as cargo on most airlines), my air tickets and also our accommodations. Accommodations which are pet-friendly are very limited in most cities. We were lucky to have found a very good pet-friendly apartments on HK Island called Chi Residences 138. The apartments overlook Victoria Harbour and the views are magnificent.
Needless to say, Bossa did well in HK. In the first show, he went on to the finals for two out of the five rings.

He did even better in the second show, finalizing in five out of the six rings.
At the end of the last show season, Bossa obtained his DW Title, being ranked 4th in Malaysia and 15th for Asia in the Premiership category