I
have always loved Balinese cats and thoroughly enjoyed the litters that I bred.
Most people have forgotten that when I first came into the cat fancy it was
Balinese kittens that I was breeding and not Siamese. It used to be so very
difficult back in those days to find Siamese stud owners who were prepared to
allow Balinese into their boys, but we all persisted and eventually Balinese
became more and more available and could be seen in ever greater numbers on
the show bench. Whilst still very much in love with the breed, I became very
disillusioned with the manner in which some cats were being bred, where the
gene pool should have been widening it appeared to becoming smaller and smaller.
For years I longed to have an Angora of my own but they were extremely difficult
to find. Five years ago I was fortunate enough to be offered an Angora kitten
by Julia May and so Palantir Krazymxytupkyd came into my life to become my foundation
Angora breeding queen. She is big beautiful girl and is one of those rare cats
that no matter which stud I put her to she will produce beautiful babies of
wonderful type. Saffy as she is known is an extremely strong willed cat and
is inclined to boss the other cats around, including Dilbert my stud boy. However,
to watch her with her babies is the most wonderful experience, she is probably
the most devoted mother I have ever had, her kittens are always extremely well
fed, spotless and have her attention lavished upon them.
When
we moved to Torquay it became even more difficult to find a Balinese stud within
a reasonable travelling distance so, very reluctantly I put Balinese on hold
for a while and started to breed Orientals alongside my Siamese. Imagine my
delight when I discovered the beautiful breed known in this country as Angora's
but elsewhere as Oriental Longhairs.
I
also have her granddaughter, Summerdown De Yow (Maire - pronounced Moya) a beautiful
red tabby Angora, the first Angora to be born under my prefix. Maire has only
had one litter of kittens so far but proved to be nearly as good a mother as
her grandmother.
I
have great hopes for the future of the Angoras. There are many more breeders
working with good, well thought out breeding programmes and I certainly believe
that lessons have been learned from the experiences of the early Balinese breeders.
There are currently some beautiful Angoras on the show bench appearing in ever
greater numbers and hopefully before too much longer they will progress to Championship
status. As for the Balinese, well, I still often think about a litter or two
of 'hairy Siamese', just watch this space………..
