Once upon a time ...
there was a man (John) and his wife (me - Bette), who liked animals very much. Horses, dogs, rabbits, and parakeets had played a great part in my life, and John had had an assortment of cats (Russian Blue), fish, and birds. When we decided to build a home together, we also had to find some animals that we would both like. And we could easily agree on cats. But it was less easy to agree on what kind of cat.
We went to a lot of cat shows, and looked at thousands of cats, and we found many that were very sweet and pretty, but the only thing we could really agree on was what cats we did NOT want to have. We did not want Persians (too much work to keep the coat in perfect condition), and we did not want Siamese (too demanding and loud-voiced for our household), but British Shorthair and Abyssinians were a possibility, and of course we also looked at Forest Cats and Maine Coons. But they were not very numerous at the shows, and we could not make up our minds.
One thing that we could agree on was that cats look nice in stripes, and at last we ended up with two "grey striped" moggies (we later learned that they were in fact silver mackerel tabbies - but to the beginner all cats are grey) - a brother and sister, Jonathan and Josephine.
Then one day we got acquainted with a breeder of Norwegian Forest cats, who just happened to have a 1 year old neuter that she needed to place into a new home. There was one great draw-back to this: he was full of mischief and a terrible weakling as he had started life in a very bad home.
However, we decided to give it a try, and from that day in 1989 when "Gauge" (EP Kianda's Max) joined our family our fate was sealed. He turned our lives upside down, but also gave us much joy. Because of him we started to show and breed Forest Cats. After a few months he was joined by Patrick (GIC Kianda's Patrick), and we have never looked back. Today we have 11 Forest Cats, and we spend a great deal of time on our cats. We also spend a lot of time on other cat related activities - I was for quite some years editor of various cat magazines, latest Felis Danica's magazine, KatteMagasinet, and I am an Int. FIFe judge for Semi-Longhairs. Furthermore I was on the board of DARAK for a few years. At the moment I am showmanager for Racekatten, and since February 2009 president of Felis Danica.
 EP Kianda's Max  GIC Kianda's Patrick |
Our first "Weegies"
Max and Patrick were our first Forest Cats - the first of many.
Both were special, both had beautiful personalities, and both did very well as shows, and we have very fond memories of both.
Orangutang?
Our latest "familymember" is an Orangutang - KESI. She lives in
Borneo, in Nyaru Meteng rehabilitation centre which is run by Danish
Lone D. Nielsen.
Read more about KESI and BOS!
