About Us:
I am a breeder of pedigree Burmese cats and live in Chester. I have only a couple of litters of very loved kittens a year and sell them to cover the costs of breeding and showing my cats. I think Burmese cats are a fantastic breed. They are lively, mischievous, very interactive and love the company of people. I work hard to make sure that I produce kittens that are healthy and well socialised while maintaining the looks and personality of this highly individual cat.
I can’t remember the first time I saw a Burmese as my Mum had a brown Burmese called Suki who pre-dated me by 3 years and was part of our family until the year before I went to university. We had also had Scotties which my parents had bred for a while. I didn’t have the opportunity for many years to have a pet but after I had settled down to one place I decided I’d get a Burmese in 1998. Burmese because I didn’t want a dog and having known Burmese no other breed would do- a rather usual sentiment among kitten buyers generally!
I bought 2 litter sisters - Megan a Blue and Mia a lilac. I took them to the Chester show in 1999 because there breeder asked me too and the show venue in Chester was at the top of the road I lived on- and therefore it would have seemed rude to say no. I was looking for a hobby and quite liked the experience so entered another show and that was the start of the addiction really. It would be great to pretend that it was planned but it was more of a passive drift really.
I had a good look around and decided that I would like to breed from Mia and took her to Barbara Parry’s old stud cat Tiggyboy- GrCh Tanclogwyn Brown Taliesin. This was the start of a very good friendship and I am indebted to Barbara for all her support and guidance and any of my successes are due in great part to her. She allowed me to use her boys and has given me the great pleasure of owning Phoebe (Ch Artro Brown Anwen) and Blue (ImpGrCh Admewbu Blue Beuno).
From my first litter I kept a chocolate girl Aureus Chocolate Thalia- Tilly. She won best in show Burmese at her first kitten show and made champion on her first birthday at the BCC show in 2001 and was best in show Adult. Wow! She has now made Imperial Grand Champion but is above all my perfect lap warmer. I have had other show successes but am a great believer that what goes around come around. I like showing my cats but I find the genetic and health issues of breeding more fascinating and want to produce Burmese cats that approximate as closely as possible to my interpretation of the SOP’s. With my breeding programme I have started in recent years to produce cats that are more approaching the type that I personally like and the next challenge for me is to try and reproduce that type more consistently while continuing to have cats with good health and temperament. I inherited Blue as a working stud 2 years ago and it has been a delight caring for him and I have enjoyed the privilege of looking after visiting queens. Being a stud owner is never dull but hard work and makes me even more grateful to those generous owners of boys who have had my girls in over the years. We do indeed “stand on the shoulders of others” and I am grateful too for the work done by the many breeders behind my own cats.
The cat fancy is a very time consuming hobby but very very enjoyable. I like to put something back in so am a member of the Burmese Cat Society committee and my local club the Chester and North Wales Cat Club and am joint show manager. My biggest challenge though is that I am now training to become a GCCF judge.
On a personal note I am a 44 year old GP living in Chester with my partner Andy who is a charge nurse at our local hospice. That makes him sound almost angelic -which of course he is! Andy is very unlikely to be spotted at a cat show as this is my hobby not his and although he is caring and supportive of the cats at home this is not his world. Which is fine- and means I don’t have to fain an interest in cars!