My Introduction To Abys

Hello, my name is Margaret, I live in South Derbyshire, I'm married to Keith, I have two grown up daughters and one treasured granddaughter, an Irish Terrier and my beloved Abys. I was raised in a farming community and had many animals both farm and domestic, but it wasn't until 1988 that I had my first pedigree cat, a Chocolate Point Siamese, Taimoon Flo Jo, bred by my friend Janice Clark.

Whilst showing her at the Notts. & Derby Cat Club show in 1989, I asked my daughter Shona to go look at the cats on show, as she was desperate for one to show herself. Off she went with catalogue in hand to check names and breeds. She came back very excited, to say that she'd seen a cat she had fallen in love with. The cat in question was Mrs. Brown's Robstein Sandpiper.

From that moment we decided that was the cat for us, one of oldest breeds of cat --the wonderful Abyssinian.

After doing a bit of research, we found we had a very good breeder not far away, Caroline McCauley, prefix ANNERA. We contacted her and were informed we could go and see her cats and would be allowed to have one if we were suitable. We came away with a Sorrel girl, ANNERA JANA, not a Usual boy has we had wanted, still she was beautiful.

A few weeks later Caroline contacted us to say that she had a Usual boy available,were we interested, away we went to pick him up. Caroline persuaded us to keep him entire for a while to see how he turned out. Three shows he became Champion, four shows later he made Grand Champion, he became my first stud cat --ANNERA IMRI.

IMRI and JANA were the start of my breeding, and I thank the late Caroline McCauley for allowing to have my first beautiful Abys. We had four kittens in our first litter two Usual and two Sorrel, the best of the Sorrel boys WAVETAIL ACHILLES went to my very good friend Sandra Bridges,who showed him up to Grand Champion and later to Premier.                                                                                                                                                                

Sandra now very successfully breeds Burmese, prefix SANLIS                                                          

The Usual boy WAVETAIL ALBEDOU, we kept and showed as a neuter becoming Premier. He was a great ambassador for the breed, meeting and greeting people on the Abyssinian Cat Club stall, putting out his paw to shake their hands as they passed by.                              

I have been a committee member of the Abyssinian Cat Club since 1996 and hope that I have helped promote the breed of this wonderful cat and will continue to do so in the future.