🐱Are You Kitten Me Live 2026🐱

This past weekend, I attended one of my favorite shows of the year - Are You Kitten Me Live. I've attended Kitten since 2023, and I always have a blast. The show is a benefit for a local PA cat rescue called Wayward Whiskers, and the attendees show up and put together a really fabulous raffle every year - I think this year the raffle had over 150 items? It's incredible.

A fun part of Kitten that I've missed out on has been the meet-up at the Cattfeinated Cat Cafe the Friday night before the show. The cafe is run by Wayward Whiskers, and adoptable cats are in rooms at the cafe. This year, I was determined to make it to the cat cafe, so I hustled after getting off work and made it for the last 45 minutes of the meetup. All the kitties were so sweet, but my two would never forgive me if I brought home a third cat!

One of the sweet kitties available for adoption, with my peach lemonade from the cafe

After the cat cafe, I headed out with some friends for dinner. My friend Sarah and I were shocked to hear that our out of town friends had never heard of Eat'n Park. For those who aren't from the Pennsylvania/northeast Ohio area, Eat'n Park is a cultural institution of a restaurant chain, most famous for its smiley cookies. We had such a fun time at dinner, and our waitress said we were her favorite table and that we made her night.

An essential smiley cookie group photo!

The show started bright and early the next day - I ended up at the show hall at 4:45am to help the hostesses with set-up (most of them were there earlier but I needed Dunkin to function!) It was nice getting there early, and having plenty of time to get my table set up once I had helped the hostesses with the various morning tasks they had, but I definitely felt the morning wake up call for a few days after the show! (I'm writing this on Wednesday and I think I've finally recovered).

I spent a decent chunk of time during set up blowing these up by hand...the painters tape holding it to the wall lasted about as long as it took to take this photo

The thing about the Kitten show is it is on par with the BreyerFest Open Show as far as competition goes - any ribbon at this show is a major accomplishment. The classes are that big and the horses are that nice. So while I didn't get any sectional champions this year, I came home with the most NAN cards I've EVER come home from this show with, and that's an accomplishment I'm proud of. I'm even more proud that despite being the last division to start judging (Kitten has a small amount of rings, so not all divisions start at once), I still finished on time and didn't hold the show up (and my classes weren't small either!) It was a very good day in horse show land! 😊

The fabulous hostesses, judges, and show staff! Photo courtesy Select Arcane

As always, post-show Mexican was a blast with the usual crew. I love getting to decompress with good food, good laughs, and plastic pony talk before driving home after a show. The next day, the hostesses announced the total that had been raised for Wayward Whiskers - a whopping $13,200 for the kitties. I love how people show up and contribute for a great cause! That's some horse girl power right there!

The squad with our matching model horse show T-shirts: Iced Coffee, No Sleep

The NAN Qualifiers:

Surreptitious Gloss Deal - OF Breyer ASB

Diamond of the Season - OF Breyer Longears/Other Equids

String Quartet - OF Breyer Other Pure/Part Draft

Honing Your Power - OF Breyer Stock Foals

Love Kernels - OF Breyer Mini Part Arabian

One Less Temptress - OF Breyer Mini North American Gaited Breeds

A Clear Day - OF Breyer Mini TB/STB

Claire, It's French! - OF Breyer Mini All Warmblood Breeds

Sunset and Vine - OF Breyer Mini All Warmblood Breeds

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - OF Breyer Mini Coaching/Carriage/Other Sport Breeds

Total Eclipse - OF Breyer Mini Solid Stock Breeds

Not Mine to Lose - OF Breyer Mini Modern Show and Heavy Draft Breeds

Moments of Gold - OF Breyer Mini Riding Pony and Traditional Pony Breeds

Denial is a River - OF Breyer Mini Other Pure/Part Breeds and Other Equids

Golden Child - OF Breyer Mini Foals

I Don't Collect These - OF Stone Mini Spanish Breeds (no Mustang)

Zero Sugar - OF Stone Mini All Warmblood Breeds