I was recently at a cat show in Madison Square Gardens. I was wondering why do some of the nut case contestants use makeup brushes for their cats’ eyes? Is it to get the goobers out? Really strange question. But it must be answered.
They are evidently putting powder under the cat’s eyes in order to prevent tears from staining the perfection of the fur there.
Speshul tear-stain-repelling powder costs $15 for 2 ounces. Eep!
Sometimes, animals bred to have flat faces with little or no muzzle don’t have the little ducts that drain tears into the nose. So, they continually have eye goop. The handlers don’t want a perfectly groomed show kitty to have a streak of eye goop on its face, so they have to keep wiping it off.
There’s a controversy about the development of the extremely flat-faced cats. The lack of a snout leads to health problems for the cat. I’m in the “anti” camp, myself.
When we took our two Russian Blue kittens to their first and only cat show (they hated it and we were bored sitting around all day, so no more show participation for any of us) the lady who bred them helped us get them ready for the ring. One of the things she had us do was put some white powder in the corners of their eyes. Not only did it dry up any moisture, but it also covered up the darker spots that are usually present in the corners of cats’ eyes.
I’m amazed the kind of effort cat folks go through to show some of these cats. With Russians all you have to do is give them a bath and put some powder around their eyes. Persians…I can’t even imagine having to do all the work they take to get ready! It doesn’t seem like it would be much fun for the cat, either (though maybe they don’t mind…as my spouse says, Persians are sort of ‘members of the pillow family,’ so they’re pretty mellow about things)