My sister and I always thought that when we reached the dreaded “middle age” years, we would take up our mother’s mantle and do ‘a bit of breeding’ as we had so loved the menagerie of Labrador puppies, kittens and rodents that inhabited our early life. To start off, we both decided quite separately that it would be wise to visit some shows and maybe get a show kitten to see what it was all about. Some months later, armed with a lovely Siamese for my sister, and a Tiffanie (now Longhaired Burmilla) for me, we hit the show circuit. Little did we know that that ‘quest for perfection’ would land us here...

I was very fortunate to have some wonderful people mentor me in my early days. It seems that many people think that they can get an un-desexed cat and become a breeder but I need to shout out loud – DON’T! Apart from their knowledge about the breed, showing, grooming, and what the standard and type issues are, there is nothing better than having a caring and knowledgeable person on the other end of the phone when you are in the normal strife of breeding cats! I am forever grateful for the time and input of these friends.

Some seven years later we have a dual occupancy house in the Blue Mountains (so that we each have on-site cat minding facilities to cater for our shared travel bug!) and small catteries that come under the title of Blue Mountains Cats. While my sister has concentrated on breeding Exotics under the Kavimo prefix, I have my Burmilla programme (under the name of Tristone) running alongside my Maine Coons – the other cat I always wanted to have! We have multi-level enclosures for the stud cats looking out across the valley, bright coloured birds teasing them from the branches above and the lovely cool and healthy weather of the mountains to enjoy.

I have some strong philosophies of cat breeding that work for me – one is that you lose a lot of the fun when you let it become large scale, and for this reason we keep no more than a couple of girls of each breed entire at a time, and only have a few litters per year. We have never pushed the enjoyment that is a litter of kittens into an outdoor cage, but rear all our babies in the house with the presence of dogs children and other cats to encourage them to be easy-going and social. While we may not achieve some of the breed success of others, we find many of the difficult issues of breeding much easier to control.

We also believe that the kitten buyer should have the best chance there is to have a lovely healthy kitten. Though we try, nothing is perfect and there are always health problems that can be caught, but we are part of groups like UMCFA (http://au.geocities.com/umcfa/) that endeavour to make sure that inherited conditions are not transmitted wherever possible. Maine Coons have some genetic issues for which testing needs to be done and we always encourage buyers to ask for testing paperwork of the parents of any kitten they are going to buy. Ask the breeders to see the parents, check out their facilities and do your homework – it really pays in the long run.

One of the fun things that comes from this hobby has been the promotion – our cats have been on TV with Don Burke, Dr Harry and in television advertisements. We can see their faces on packaging and enjoy the effect that they have on the public at shows and displays. Our first imported Maine Coon was twice WNCA Cat of the Year and has been a wonderful ambassador for the breed and for us. It sometimes feels like we get all the glory through our animals – but hey, it’s better than none at all!

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