[08/13/01] Their first cat was a purebred Himalayan, one that Amanda McCool was confident would make a good companion for her young daughter.

She loved it, but she feared that cat show judges wouldn’t. So McCool shipped the feline to a good family in McComb and started the hobby that’s dominated her leisure time for about 10 years.

McCool, a Vicksburg real estate agent, will manage the Azalea Trails Cat Fanciers’ Association’s annual show in Vicksburg this weekend. She’ll also try to add to the honors already stashed up by her stable the High Cotton Cattery by entering one of her most accomplished show cats, Itty Bitty Kitty.

As many as 350 cat owners from as far as New York are expected to join her in the show, Saturday and Sunday.

It will be the city’s first opportunity to see a hobby that is unprofitable, demanding and so competitive that owners like McCool regularly jettison cats unlikely to win shows. It’s a world in which secretaries and homemakers and real estate agents study genetics and zoology to have a better shot at raising the perfect feline.

McCool has 12 or 14 Himalayans she says she loses count of the sultry-faced furballs that roam her house and she regularly breeds more.

“And these aren’t just your regular house cats,” McCool says.

These are cats that run from mice. Some of them get two baths a week. None eats food from the supermarket, and they never venture outdoors if not in carrier cages.

Itty Bitty Kitty, officially known as IBK of High Cotton because of letter limits on pedigree names, already has 49 points from previous shows, making him a champion in the Cat Fanciers’ Association’s classification system. And it’s taken a lot of grooming combs for him to reach that stage.

“He’s very spoiled,” McCool said of her prima donna. “They all are.”

Breeding the cats has bonded McCool with people like Karen Causey, a secretary at Anderson-Tully who disliked the pets until McCool put some kittens in her lap six years ago.

“I thought they were going to be like the mean Siamese cats I knew when I was a kid,” Causey said. “I was wrong. I fell in love.”

Potential entrants have until Monday to register with McCool. For the first time, the show will also feature a competition among household felines.

“So you can enter Fluffy if you want,” McCool said.

The base entry fee for one cat is $40, $35 for the household division, with additional charges for grooming space and bigger cages. To sign up, contact McCool at 279-6335.