Are You Kitten Me '25 Report

I had the absolute best time at Are You Kitten Me last weekend!

I haven't been to a live show, other than Breyerfest, since before the pandemic lockdowns. But even without the total shutdown of society in 2020, I was already pretty burned out from it in 2019 and had been doing more judging locally than showing. The long break was just what I needed and I was so excited to get back out! Many of my hobby friends are local but I also have quite a few close friends in the western PA area so it was great to see them outside of just Breyerfest.

AYKM is fast becoming one of the must-do destination shows of the year. They have won Member Show of the Year for two years running (at least?) and it is no surprise why! One of the things I look for in a show is a great class list with many divisions so I can bring a variety of models from my collection. AYKM has no shortage of divisions to appeal to all hobbyists from OF and CMG china, resins, CM plastic, and divisions for Breyer, Stone, Copperfox, and more! With separate divisions for minis and all double judged! Let me tell you, having been a show holder I know this is a very difficult feat to pull off in a one day show but they do it and do it well! We were finished before 6 PM!

The show hall is a great size and very well lit. They host around 70 showers (with full tables, no less) and it never felt crowded or tight. There is plenty of room to get around the show tables and the exhibitor tables. There is also a generous kitchen and the showholders offer a lunch option so you don't have to worry about when and how you will get food. I love a catered show! Even better this year the Caffeinated Cat Cafe was able to come for several hours and offered complimentary coffee and non-coffee drinks to everyone! My latte was amazing.

The show is a fundraiser for Wayward Whiskers, a cat rescue, and another big reason I've been wanting to come out and support! They get a ton of donations from all around the country (world even) so the raffle and silent auctions are not to be missed. There were over 130 lots this year - I have never seen so many! All the showers also get goodie bags and if you are a cat owner you get some toys for them too. The catnip pierogis are world famous and an amazing tradition after the show is everyone posting photos of their cats and their new pierogis.

Greta loves hers!

It is no surprise but the competition is fierce! All the divisions were well attended and many of the classes were absolutely filled with the best of the best. The Breyer judge even commented that the classes were on par with NAN and Breyerfest Live, which are well known as the toughest shows out there.

Since I most often show Breyers (because I most often only at BF!) I focused on bringing out my Stones and other models. It was so much fun to get to show my Stones and Copperfoxes and Hartlands too! But I did also bring some Breyers along that I wanted to try to NAN qualify or some that I'm working on merit awards for. Not to mention going for the pony pouches that are the awards for the division champions! They are probably my favorite prize to win at a show - it's like the model horse equivalent of winning a cooler at a real horse show.

I wanted to get a ton of photos but as often happens I ended up being so busy running between rings that I didn't get very many and didn't even get all my winners. But I did get some!

Every first place also got one of these adorable mini printed kittens and I had the cutest army by the end of the day - also indicating my herd did very well!

In fact - I did way better than I even hoped! My test color SM Foal, Silver Meteor, was overall champion in the Breyer mini division. I bought a set of them years ago from someone who had done some consulting work for Breyer so I have this little guy in 4 different metallic finishes that were test colors for potential Breyerfest keychains in the early 2000s when they were big in to doing those.

In the Stone division, my Sutterland, Sylvester, was overall champion in Breed! The trotting drafter is one of my top favorite Stone molds and this run was always particularly special because he was a local SR, being first sold at Equine Affair in MA. The EFCMs were new and exciting and hard to get when he was originally released back in 2005 - and to this day he remains one of the best and most correct Clydesdales they have ever produced.

My OOAK Irish Draft, Rennes, is a Boydston Best Offer model that I was able to purchase secondhand a few years ago. He was reserve overall in Collectibility. My Stone collection is primarily made up of artist Best Offers and in particular Caroline Boydston. I absolutely adore her work and I've been trying to get at least one of every color and one of every mold! I was super excited to get this guy - in my opinion you can't top a bay on this mold and he was already 11x NANed (and just added 2 more).

Over in the Breyer division my dapple black Belgian, Arryn, ended up taking the overall collectibility championship! This was a tough tough division filled with some really amazing and rare pieces across vintage and modern, and of course collectibility is my personal primary collecting focus, so it was especially thrilling to win.

And not only that he ended up being declared Best in Show of the entire event! Ahhhh! So exciting!! Not only did I win the pony pouches but I also won the tablecloth! I couldn't have had a better day and I can't thank all the volunteers who put on this amazing show. I've always followed a sort of personal code that once you win the big prize you should take a year off and give back - so next year I'm on the roster to judge! I can't wait to be back, to see everyone, and to support the kitties!