My interest and love for Siamese began as a little girl. My aunt had a retired show kitty, a seal point neutered Siamese named Sammy.

I adored Sammy and my love and fascination for the breed was born! As a teenager, I would wander the aisles of local cat shows and drool over the kitties.  One day I hoped to breed and show.

I grew up, married, had children... and the time came when our family decided it was ready to enter the cat fancy.

In 2003, we championed our first cat, Osiris, but in the process realized he wasn't quite the show quality cat we had hoped for.

We neutered Osiris and he is now the official lap cat and "uncle" to our other kitties.

We started over looking for a special show cat.

Papyrus

I met Bernie Hartman in 2003 when he was campaigning his Colorpoint Shorthair, GC, BW, NW Sanlino Thoroughly Tortie Millie to her national win. I fell in LOVE with Millie. That's when I knew, my goal was to get my red factored CPSH girl from Bernie and his partner, Bob Molino - but I never dreamed it would take less than a year for our special kitten to arrive.

In June of 2004 we picked up our lovely cream point CPSH, Papyrus.

She embodies grace and beauty in ways I could have never imagined before I first laid eyes on her.  

She also has a  WONDERFUL temperament.  She is sweet and loves to play for the judges. I still smile when I recall that when we picked her up from Bob she "pranced" for us.

She runs towards you, purring and with her tail straight up over her back!  She sits posing as if she is royalty and knows how beautiful and graceful she is. She is a joy.

The Stork is on the Wing!

We showed Papyrus as a kitten but as I was 7 months pregnant at the time we were not able to show her as often as we wished.

Being pregnant and still showing is a challenge. As I entered my ninth month, I was still taking Papyrus to her kitten shows. Considering this was my sixth baby, I thought that a show would be just the place to "walk my baby down" a bit more and of course keep Papyrus out exhibiting :-)). Of course, showing so late into my pregnancy would have been impossible without the support of my hubby, kids, mom and mother-in-law.

In fact, just a few days before my daughter's birth, our family was in St. Louis, MO showing. (And yes we took the infant seat and diaper bag just in case!)

Our daughter was born just four days after our show in St. Louis. After her arrival we took weekends off and didn't show as often.

The Baby Sitter

Papyrus took immediately to the new baby and became her self-appointed baby-sitter.

Papyrus was always curled up right in the small of the baby's back and wouldn't let the other cats get too close.

I think Papyrus will be a wonderful mother!

Back In The Show Ring

In January we traveled to Delaware to attend the show put on by our cat club.

Papyrus granded! Next we drove to Philadelphia for the last show weekend of the season to show Papyrus one last time before breeding her and so that Bob Molino could see how "our" girl had grown up.

A Family Affair

Our two eldest children were teenagers and are the most help to us in the show hall. All the children except the two smallest can be seen stewarding at most shows we attend.

My husband and I have all attended clerking school.

My hubby is on fire with his assistant clerking as he wants to be a full fledged licensed clerk by the time of the next show for our home club

He has also shown a huge interest in becoming a CFA judge, and despite our protest, is in LOVE with Maine Coons.  Now, I don't dislike Maine Coons but our chosen breeds are Siamese and Colorpoint Shorthairs :-).

I know my son will hold onto his love of MC's until he has his own cattery... although I will be willing to discuss his showing a premier in the future.

What's Next?

We will always be indebted to Papyrus' breeders, Bob Molino and Bernie Hartman. We are forever grateful to them both for our lovely girl and the fact that they entrusted us with her. What a foundation for our Colorpoint program!

Bob also has spent much time patiently teaching us to groom and about proper, responsible breeding, and of course, color genetics.

We will miss showing for a bit but am hopeful Papyrus will have a lovely kitten for us to show... and once again, the whole family will be at the shows.

CFA is a wonderful place for us as a family and we have had so much fun this season. I have seen so many beautiful cats and met so many of the owners of this years winners. It's truly been a pleasure. Here's to another wonderful show season and lovely new show kitties!