|
FAN-C
CATS
Barbara Baylor
I, Barbara Baylor, visited a friend, Barbara Gordon, one day and saw a
very beautiful spotted ebony tabby; it was love at first sight. The
cat’s name was Tabbyoca, later GRC Felitan Tabbyoca of Jenlyn, D.M.
She was CFA’s first grand champion ebony spotted tabby (1982) and she
also achieved distinguished merit status in her first litter! I was
fortunate to have “Spot” living with me at that time so she was bred
to GRC Singa Mikado of Fan-C, D.M. Fortunately Spot was a homozygous
Oriental (in other words she did not carry the gene for color restricted
to points, Siamese, like so many Orientals do) so all of her kittens
could be shown. Spot’s first litter was such fun! There were times
when all five kittens sat together in finals. So many beautiful kittens
in so many colors! NGRC Ogimi Dorian Gray, lavender tabby, GRC Ogimi
Lady Jane Gray of Karamu. GRC Ogimi Aretha Franklin, ebon. GRC Ogimi
Roosevelt Franklin, ebony. GRC Ogimi Leroy Brown, chestnut spotted
tabby. Spot only had three litters, the second was an accident; but a
lucky one. It produced GRC Ogimi Jaboulet of Seareef, D.M.* a blue
female who was one of Al and Jan Garraputa’s foundation cats. Jaboulet
was bred back to her gradfather Mikado and produced, among others, GRC
Fan-c Broadway Joe* of Seareef an ebony, and GRC Fan-C Chila of Seareef,
a chestnut female. Spot’s last litter was a repeat of the first and
produced GRC Fan-C Perrier Jouer of Shadow, a blue tabby owned by
Sharon
and George Bounds and an ebony tabby male who became a grand premier.
Spot had a total of nine kittens and only one was not shown and did not
grand.
Spot’s most famous offspring was Dorian Gray, CFA’s 19th
best cat in 1983. The judges loved Dorian, and as far as Dorian was
concerned everybody was his best friend. Dorian produced several
beautiful litters in spite of dying young from a freakish reaction to an
antihistamine given to him for a slight sniffle. His kittens were good,
but many were pointed and at that time even the colorpoints out of
Orientals were unacceptable for competition in CFA. Losing Dorian was
the single most disastrous blow to my breeding program in 25 years.
Ann and Bob Sumrall granded one of his offspring, as did Diane Vlasak. I
had only two females, both blue tabbies. One went to Jo and Phil Quinzi
and became the basis for the La Bianca OSH program. I kept the other
one.
As you can see the introduction of “Spot” into my breeding program
affected the breeding programs of a number of notable breeders.
Interestingly she is the only
OSH
introduced into my Colorpoint and Siamese program. All of the lovely
Orientals that I have produced over the years have come from her.
Thanks, Barbara Levitan from all of us.
Mikado was bred to two other lovely GRC Orientals that year. Diane
Vlasak’s ebony from Valerie Balavidge gave her GRC Karamews’ Carbon
Copy and Karamews’ Blue-purr. Diane’s solid blue grand produced at
least three more grands. We tore up the show ring that year with all of
those cats!
I think that the innovative contribution that I’ve made to the Oriental
breed was to allow a top producing Singa male Siamese to be used with
these Oriental cats from Frodo lines, for the first time. Look what
happened. WOW!
It isn’t just the colors that I love in the Orientals. There’s
something special about their personalities. If you like Siamese
you’ll love Orientals. When you have one litter you’re hooked for
life
Al and Jan Garraputa have had their share of success with Oriental
Shorthairs, including a top twenty cat with GRC Seareef’s Buccaneer*
1987s 20th best cat.
SEAREEF
CATTERY
Al & Jan Garraputa
The way we acquired our first Oriental Shorthair is a story in itself. In
the early eighties we were showing a lovely Siamese female that we
co-owned with Vicky Metosh. At the time it seemed as though the Siamese
were always judged at the end of the day, thus making the day quite long
and boring. Idea! Let’s get a cat to show in premiership since they
wee usually judged and finaled early in the day. Due to the body shading
on most of the Siamese we had seen, we felt that it was not practical to
purchase one of them for premiership. We decided on an Oriental
Shorthair thus eliminating the shading problem and keeping to the body
type we so loved.
Our first Oriental was a blue male with vibrant eye color, wonderful type,
and a shimmery silver blue coat. Around our house he was known as
Sailor. Unfortunately in the show ring he was known as Jaws. Hence his
show career was short lived. Since he was such a fine example of the
breed we decided to keep him as a whole male. We can still hear a faint
echo saying, “NO whole males in our lovely home.” Ha Ha!
It was during that time that we had the pleasure of meeting Barbara Baylor
of Fan-C Cattery. At the time, Barbara was showing a stunning lavender
tabby Oriental male with a super sweet disposition. This male GRC NW
Ogimi Dorian Gray went on that year to a top twenty national win. We
knew instantly that Barbara’s cats had the type and sweet attitudes
that we wanted to work with in our breeding program.
Barbara was kind enough to trust us with a lovely blue Oriental female,
Ogimi Jaboulet of Seareef, D.M.* (Gabby) with these stipulations (1)
Gabby would be sent back to Barbara to be bred to GRC Singa Mikado of
Fan-C, D.M. (2) Gabby would have a permanent home with us for as long as
she lived. We were thrilled with the arrangement.
The breeding between GRC Sings Mikado of Fan-C D.M. and GRC Ogimi Jaboulet
of Seareef D.M. produced five Oriental Shorthairs and one blue point AOV.
All were top quality and we kept three of them. The lovely AOV Fan-C
Fantasia of Seareef, the sweet refined blue female, GRC Fan-C Ebb Tide
of Seareef and an ebony male with super type, Fan-C Broadway Joe of
Seareef. Thanks to Barbara, we had the start of a solid breeding
program.
Note: The second breeding for Gabby
was to Sailor and this produced GRC Seareef’s Sailor Girl, our first
grand of our own breeding.
We knew that we wanted to work with ebonies, so we contacted Barbara and
Dick Levitan about purchasing an ebony female. Anyone who knows about
Oriental Shorthairs is familiar with the name Felitan. Among Oriental
breeders it is a household word. This cattery name is behind more
Orientals than any other cattery name. We were in luck, Barbara and Dick
had a few ebonies. They usually worked with silver tabbies. In fact the
mother of these kittens was a silver tabby, GRC Felitan Silvanna D.M.
GRC Felitan Sea Witch of Seareef,* a lovely ebony female, with a sleek
body and a jet black painted on coat came to live with us. “Witchie”
was bred to Broadway Joe thus producing our first National Winner, GRC
NW Seareef’s Buccaneer,* CFA’s 20th Best Cat 1986-87.
Bucky had his father’s disposition and type and his mother’s style
and rich ebony coat. This breeding also produced our first one show
grand, GRC Seareef’s Witchie Inlet.
These cats and their offspring have gone one to produce many winning cats.
(See CFA Yearbooks for their wins) GRC Seareef’s Sailor Girl; GRC
Seareef’s Andrea Doria,* GRC Seareef’s Sea Sorceress; GRC
Seareef’s Witch Craft; GRC, NW Seareef's Buccaneer,* GRC Seareef’s
Witch-A-Board,* CH Seareef’s Sand Shark, GRC Seareef’s Licorice of
Confectiona (owner: Diana Lagerwall) GRC Seareef’s Black Coral of
Purrtecats (owners: Bob and Sharon Gummow) GRC Colormagic Ricco Tubbs,*
Dam: Seareef’s Midnight Lace of Colormagic (owners: Linda Wilson and
Virginia Wolfe).
Witchie, Joey, Gabby and Sailor have been our foundation cats and we thank
Barbara Baylor and Barbara and Dick Levitan for being kind enough to
allow these cats to share their lives with us.
Ann and Bob Sumrall (Printer) are among the small group of
breeders to have produced around a dozen grand champion Orientals.
 |
