My cats are first and foremost companion animals, and the girls and Dennis live in the house not in a cattery in the garden. Unfortunately as entire males usually spray, Basil (GrCh Cinnphony Marco Rolo) lives in a stud house along with Max for company, and they have the run of the garden during most of the day. Usually I sit with them and listen to the radio each day for an hour or so, but sometimes when it’s very windy & rainy he & Max just want a duvet day and I leave them to it.
I have been owned by cats since 1992 when I got my first two moggies Sooty & Sparky. I let Sparky have one litter before neutering her. Thankfully all went well the whole way through and she had three adorable kittens. I kept the black & white boy, George.
I got my first two pedigree kittens in the late 90s. They were Billy (caramel self Asian) and Janice (brown smoke Asian) who were born a day apart in different litters, but their mums raised them as one large shared litter.
At the time I belonged to the sadly now defunct West Riding Pet Cat Club, and one of their shows saw the most handsome red tabby male, Rufus. I didn’t have a carrier with me so went home to get one, and he came to live with me. I didn’t realise at the time but he was a fairly traumatised lad, and never really settled in until after George was pts, but he then became a wonderful cat.
I was at a show with a household pet, and saw a very handsome Havana asleep in his cage. That was it – I went looking for a Havana kitten and ended up getting Errol in 2000. He was a wonderful cat so long as you weren’t small with fur or feathers, or another cat. Sadly I lost him when he was only 7.
Life was far too empty and far too quiet without him, so Max and Minnie came along a few weeks later. They were Oriental Blacks.
Breeding Orientals and Siamese is something I’d wanted to do for a long time, and the time was finally right. My old cat Rufus was pts in December 2011 at a good age, 15 1/2, and by then I lived in a large enough house with a cat-proof garden.
On 1st July 2012 I brought Lola (Oriental blue) home, along with Benny her brother (caramel-point Siamese). Lola had her first litter almost exactly a year later on 2nd July 2013. There were 5 boys and 1 girl. I called the girl Eadlin (Shunra Fawntasia) and she is now a Grand Champion. She had one litter, and sadly the right girl to keep wasn’t there.
Lola had her second litter in 2014 and there was another fawn girl to keep, Aoife. By then it had become evident that there was no way Minnie would tolerate Lola, so I rehomed Minnie through the Oriental Cat Welfare Trust when Lola’s kittens were a few days old. I kept a fawn girl Aoife (Shunra Phawntasm) from Lola’s second litter. She was very shy so I’ve not shown her.
Sadly bullying raised it’s head again, this time Eadlin bullying Lola so since she had given me two lovely girls she went to live with Sheila. Unfortunately Eadlin then turned her attentions to Aoife.
By then Aoife had had a second litter, of 6 kittens this time, and it included a lovely Havana girl Tia (Shunra Bronze-Idol), so I kept Tia and Aoife went to live with Lindsay. Benny also became a target, so he went to the same home as Minnie had, also via the Oriental Cat Welfare Trust.
In 2019 I decided to get another girl, and Sadie (Athelstan Shunras-Leibling, chocolate bicolour) arrived in early August 2019 from my good friend Pina. She was wonderful with the other cats and made herself at home in very short order. Tia started treating her like her kitten!
And in 2020 I thought about getting a second stud, and I was astonished to have the chance to have Dennis (Johpas Kobe). I’m indebted to Pina (who owns his father) and his breeder, Jackie Reed, for letting him come here. He also settled in very well, and Tia once again took to mothering this large kitten, which she has continued to do to today.
Currently I have five cats – Max, Basil, Tia, Sadie and Dennis. Basil came on Valentines Day 2017, and is a stud with a wonderful personality and temperament. For the time being Dennis is living in the house as the adored kitten (4kg!) of Tia and Sadie, and Uncle to Sadie’s kittens. I hope to show him when shows resume.