Cat Show Report and Facial Exercises to Look Your Best

I’m not going to keep you guys in suspense — this is how I did at the TICA cat show this weekend in Arcadia. Out of 13 rings, I finaled in 6. In two specialty rings, I was Best Longhaired Kitten! With all the points I earned at this show, I might wind up as one of the Southwest Regional Kitten winners! I have to be in the top 25 to do that, and since this is my last show as a kitten, it all depends on how the other kittens do between now and next April, which is the end of the season. You can only show as a kitten between four and eight months, so we only have a limited time to make an impression!

Which leads me to the important part of this post: Kitty Face Exercises! To look your best, you need to keep your face in shape along with the rest of your body. If you start doing face exercises when you are a kitten, you will stay young looking for years and you will have a long career as a show cat. And if you don’t do shows, you will still dazzle the other kitties with how amazing you look!

The first step to doing your facial exercises is to relax and breathe! Let your emotions drain out of you. Become aware of your facial muscles.

For the warm up exercise, lift your chin slightly and focus on your nose. If you have a bit of food on your nose, don’t worry — that is actually very helpful for keeping your focus! You may even want to put some food on your nose on purpose.

Next, open your mouth as wide as you can, as if you are singing an aria in an opera and want the humans in the balcony seats to hear you! I don’t know why my human is pointing at me in this photo. Maybe she was impressed by my form.

Then, while keeping your mouth open slightly, move your whiskers forward. It will feel a little bit like you are flehming, but you aren’t trying to smell anything.

You should practice the warm up and the first two exercises for a few weeks before trying the exercise above! It is very advanced. I’m not even sure I can explain it properly. It’s sort of a combination of the warm up and the flehming-type exercise, but you also roll your tongue around in your mouth! You have to be careful not to put your jaw out of alignment. But once you get it right, it is so worth it because it is a wonderful full facial toner.

All these exercises may feel weird while you are doing them, but when you are done, the results are pleasing and you will always look like you are ready for a show!
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