- CHOCOLATE LOVER -

The first Himalayan that I was fortunate enough to own was a tortie point. A friend of mine owned a blue point Himalayan male and allowed me to breed my Himalayan girl to him. With our limited knowledge, we would "study" our CFA color chart to see which colors were possible from this breeding. (We were hoping for a lilac point but we didn't know that both parents had to either be or carry the chocolate gene and dilute.) Well, to our dismay none of the kittens were lilac points. But that settled it, I wanted to be a Himalayan breeder. The problem was that I owned only one female.

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So I was off to find my own Himalayan male. I called CFA and got a listing of the breeders in my area. This led me to Teresa Glisson, Lake Hyco cattery, who was nice enough to explain why I should purchase the best quality male I could afford and then work on the colors I wanted. She sold me CH Sulltans Sandpiper, a red CPC. I was so new that all I saw was a flat face, I didn't realize what a nice cat he was. Super smooth doming, cobby body, wonderful pedigree. etc. Teresa was a wonderful mentor and took the time to go over how to show bathe a cat and how to know what a show kitten looked like.

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I registered with CFA and listed my cattery on their breeder list. Then came a call from a lady who wanted to breed her female cat to my CPC male. I called Teresa and also the breeder of the female cat which turned out to be Carolyn Baker, Sandypaws cattery. I told her the pedigree of my male and she said, "Go ahead and give it a try." So after an additional amount was paid to Carolyn Baker for breeding rights and we were given her "go ahead", we gave it a go.  From this breeding, I kept one tortie point female named CH Jaemak's Evening In Paris (my grandmother's favorite perfume).

I was so impressed with the large eyes, sweet expression and long coat of the "visiting female" that I wanted to have a cat from Sandypaws as well! Carolyn also took a lot of time and helped me quite a bit. She sold me GC Sandypaws Rapid Fire. The combination of Evening In Paris and Rapid Fire was a delight. The first litter produced a flame point show male, GC Jaemak's Sunny Delight. He was my pride and joy. Then it was time to make the decision, do I keep the son and see what he will produce or keep the father and somewhat know how he will produce. I made the decision to sell Sunny to Debbie Evans, Cuddle-Paws cattery. She was wonderful with him and granded him quickly. They went on to make several Best Cat In Show and was CFA's 12th Best Himalayan and 2nd Best of Breed & Color in the North Atlantic Region. Also during the 2000-2001 show season Sunny was awarded the Atlantic Himalayan Club's 11th Best Adult Himalayan Award.

While showing, I was beginning to see that the judges liked blue, blue eyes and white coats. I wondered how to introduce this into my lines. After some checking around I found that certain lines were more prone to the white, white coats than others. Also certain colors like the chocolate and lilac points had whiter coats that stayed whiter.

During this time, Teresa Glisson was working with Pat Brendle and Gail Feddish of Choc' Sugaw cattery. I would check with Teresa from time to time to see what she had available and admired her lilac point boy. Of course, he was not for sale but the time came that Choc' Sugaw had a lilac point boy available. I went to see him at about 6 weeks old. He was my dream cat come true! I couldn't put down a deposit fast enough!

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Not only did he have the wonderful white coat but his eyes were deep vivid blue. He was absolutely as sweet as sugar. No wonder his nickname was Sugar Foot! His official name was CH Choc' Sugaw Pure Lavender of Jaemak. 

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Many thanks to Teresa Glisson (Lake Hyco), Carolyn Baker (Sandypaws), Pat Brendle and Gail Feddish (Choc' Sugaw) for their time and lovely cats they entrusted to me. 

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FAST FORWARD A FEW YEARS......

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Our kids are all grown and I have a bit more time now.  One Persian cat color that I never had the pleasure of owning nor producing was CHOCOLATE.

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When my daughter lost her fourteen year old tortie point girl, we found Coco Chanel.  She is our new chocolate tortie girl.  Although we were only looking for a pet at the time, after seeing her, I knew she was special.  Sure enough, she has several lines behind her which were also behind our Pure Lavender AKA Sugerfoot!  So after getting with Coco's breeder and paying her the additional amount for breeding rights, we decided to try our hand at breeding chocolate Persians.

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THEN...

While looking for a chocolate male, we found Buster Brown. After looking through his pedigree, we were happy to see our Grand Champion SUNNY DELIGHT behind him!  What a surprise!

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So we'll see what CHOCOLATE treats we are to behold from these lovely cats.