RURU
Barb Rudolf

Barb Rudolf wanted to get into red-point Colorpoint Shorthairs. She contacted several breeders and finally purchased two red-points from Mrs. Dolores Balestrieri (Tangee). One, Tangee Girl of RuRu, was kept as a breeder; the other became Barb’s brother’s pet. One of Tangee Girls daughters, CH RuRu Tortie Chrisama (Kissy), was a tortie point who absolutely captured the heart of a dear friend of Barb’s named Jane Braden (Llyr cattery). Jane wanted so badly to produce red Orientals. She had a male Oriental named Cormac (Llyr Cormac Mac Art) who was registered as red tabby; but had proven to be cream. Jane said that Barbara was going to breed Kissy to Cormac or else. Barb said, “I do not want to breed Orientals.” Jane said “yes you will” and Barb said “no, never, I will not breed Orientals!” So the breeding was done and Kissy had five kittens on March 6^th, 1980.* Two, a cream spotted tabby Oriental named RuRu ChrismMac and a cream spotted tabby female named RuRu Cinnabar,* Barb kept for breeding. Jane kept a blue cream female RuRu Deidre of Llyr.* Barbara Rudolf had to admit that she really liked Orientals.

Cinnabar was bred to a Siamese owned by Chris Jones and named CH Star of Siam’s Kelii of Tamman, out of GRC Thaibok Tyrone and GRC Star of Siam’s Leila. This breeding produced a tortie female named RuRu Epris.* Barb says that Epris had an awful head but a fabulous body. At a show in St. Louis Mary Stewart who had some lovely chestnut Oriental males with her, came by to look at Epris. She said that Epris had the most wonderful body she had ever felt on an Oriental, and for that alone she deserved to grand. So Epris was kept out, and she defeated cats with better heads often enough to keep going. Finally, Mary Stewart saw her again, this time as a judge, she finaled her and that granded the cat! The next year Epris was the best OSH in the MWR. Mary also suggested a breeding. She had sold one of her lovely males CH/GRP Lepracan Mus Brown Is The Color, but called Spyder to Lynn Fairbanks, who was going to show him in premiership. So Barb called Lynn and asked for a stud service. Lynn was willing but only for a one shot deal. The day after Epris was bred Spyder was neutered. Interestingly, Spyder’s grandmother was NGRC Patapaw Firefly. Although Spyder was not red he had a great blue-cream behind him.

Fortunately Epris was pregnant and had seven kittens in assorted colors. One was a red spotted tabby with outstanding type and he was named RuRu Red Spreeder.* Jane was getting out of cats so she made Barb promise to keep her red Orientals going. Spreeder made it very easy to keep that promise. He did very well as a kitten then finaled in five out of six rings as an open, with several best cat wins, and granded in two shows at the age of 8 ½ months. Altogether he was only shown in eleven shows as an adult, all in the Midwest region. From this he was: the first red tabby Oriental grand, Best Midwest Region OSH 1983-84, and Midwest 19^th best cat. To add icing to the cake, he has proven himself to be a great breeder even though he has only been used in a limited fashion. His grand offspring include: GRC RuRu Red Encore, red ticked tabby male. GRC Ruru’s Sugar Foot of Lumax, tortoiseshell female. GRC RuRu’s Lavender O Mega Spots, lavender spotted tabby male. GRC Printer’s Dromineer,* ebony male. GRC Kaybill’s Gingersnap of Kulta, ebony patched tabby female.

In spite of Spreeders’ limited stud services he has wound up to be behind a huge number of lovely cats in s lot of different catteries including: Wintara, Pegela (Elaine and Peggy Rands), Colormagic (Pamela and Gary Huggins), Kulta (Joanne Kultala), Kaybill (K. Wentling), Wolfs, Kaliman, Cerissa, JandJ, Manalishi, in West Germany, Argentina and France as well as others probably unknown. The common theme is, of course, the vivid red color that Spreeder produces. Barbara says that to keep her promise to Jane (now Rhyes) she will have to do better than that, she needs better ears (don’t we all) and a longer head to make that perfect cat. And what color does Barb’s perfect cat come in? You guessed it, vivid, brilliant RED.

At first thought it is surprising that only one OSH kitten has placed in CFA’s top ten kittens. Oriental kittens are often present in kitten finals, even if they are rarely best kitten. The difference between finaling and finaling high is enormous. In a random sample of 34 shows in one month in early 1990, representing shows from all over the country, an interesting pattern showed up in kitten finals. 35 Oriental kittens finaled at least once in these 34 shows, but only once was an OSH the highest scoring kitten in show. In 22 of these 34 shows a Persian kitten was the highest scoring kitten in show. Of the other twelve Best kittens only a single Burmese and one Scottish Fold kitten captured highest scoring kitten twice. The remaining ten spots were won by ten different kittens of ten different breeds. One was an Oriental Shorthair.

Why is this? Aside from the inherent appeal of a furry and typey Persian kitten, there is the fact that a kitten must live up to an adult standard. The Oriental standard calls from a fine boned at with large ears, which is fairly easy for a kitten to achieve. The standard also requires that the cat have a long head, a straight profile and surprisingly heavy and muscular body for its long, slender and tubular appearance and that is rather harder for a kitten to be. One oriental kitten did manage a top ten win and here is the story behind her as told by her breeders and owner Robert and Sharon Gummow.

PURTEECATS
Robert and Sharon Gummow

Sharon and I started breeding cats about six years ago. We had pet Siamese for years and after they had passed away, Sue Hoffman Bush (Sujym) introduced us to Orientals. We ended up buying a breeder from her, a solid lavender Sujym Oriental Lace of Purteecats, who is the mother of GRC Purteecats Liberty  Belle* (sired by San-Toi Crackerjax of Purteecats). Belle, also a lavender, was 2^nd best kitten in the top twenty as an adult in the Great Lakes Region, and Best Oriental at the CFA / Purina Invitational Show in 1988-89.

We decided to concentrate on solid color Orientals in the four basic colors, as well as seal point and blue point Siamese. We have used San-Toi, Sujym, Nefrtt, Blkcyn, Felitan, Seareef, Fan-C, and Windflower lines in our breeding program. We have a fairly small cattery and concentrate on a small number of quality breedings.

In 1987-88 we bred and showed National Winner GRC Purteecats Elvira.* She was the first Purteecats Grand. Elvira, an ebony, was out of our GRC Blkcyn Kenya of Purteecats and was sired by GRC Nefrtt’s Blue Scarab if Galari. The breeding was not without problems. Gretchen Flesher offered to let us use Blue Scarab the first time that she saw Kenya . It was his first outside stud service. Kenya developed a vaginal infection after the breeding and ended up receiving prostaglandin treatment in an attempt to save her for breeding. After two more breedings, she finally successfully conceived and had a litter of six healthy kittens. Elvira was the pick female.

Elvira was shown six or seven shows before w even thought about the possibility of a national kitten win. All but two of her shows were within four hours driving time of our Toledo , Ohio home. Al and Jan Garraputa, Debbie Missotti, and Gretchen all were helpful in giving us pointers and helping us pick shows after we decided to go for the win. Elvira ended her kitten career with 2277 points in November 1987 and was in 6^th r 7^th place at that time. We had to sweat out the next four and a half months, watching her drop to tenth place, where she stayed. That year she was not only 10^th best kitten nationally, but also GLR Best kitten and 11^th best cat.

 One attribute that is essential for a top show Oriental is the proper ear set. Ears are only worth 5 points according to the breed standard, but in fact they make, or break, the whole front look of the cat. A judge looks hard at all the Orientals in a class, and that can be quite a few cats. After making mental notes about the better cats in the class, he or she turns around for a last look to make a final decision. Unless there is a real stand out in the class, the final decision gets made in that last look. We’ve all been there watching the judges hesitating between the best three or four cats, while hoping the brown ribbon will land on our cat’s cage. When the judge wiggles a feather and OOPS! Up go the ears and the best of breed goes to that other cat whose ears stayed down in the wedge. One pair of breeders who seem to be able to avoid the floating ears problem with the greatest of ease is Dee Johnson and Connie Roberts of San-Toi cattery.

*denotes cat pictured

SAN-TOI
Dee Johnson and Connie Roberts

Dee and Connie had been breeding Siamese for years, with a great deal of success, before they got involved with Orientals. Dee and Connie used to help vaccinate Ruth Cooks’ (Corwyn) Oriental kittens. In 1979 Ruth owned the best OSH kitten in the North West Region, GRC Harr's Mudcat Grant of Corwyn bred by Barbara Harr. He was an ebony ticked tabby male and the first NWR best OSH . Over the next several years Ruth bred a number of grand champions and several regional winners both in breed and in top ten cats and kittens. Connie and Dee, particularly Connie, fell in love with the kittens. Soon afterwards Connie got her kitten. Orientals quickly became a new San Toi success, both in the show hall and in their owners’ hearts. As Dee notes, Siamese and Orientals are basically the same creatures, they’re really very much alike. There is something about the Orientals however, a little more of IT, whatever IT is. They are very smart and very personable and they really get you. Since Siamese and Orientals are basically the same kind of beast, the breeding techniques that made San-Toi a byword among Siamese breeders worked the same magic with Orientals. They did a lot of line breeding using very few Orientals and their top Siamese, like Singa Ballad of San-Toi, and in no time their Orientals looked like their Siamese, absolutely stunning.

GRC San-Toi Tanqueray was Dee and Connie’s first OSH grand. In 1984, they had San-Toi’s Tootsie, a chestnut girl, who was 11^th best cat in the NWR, and GRS San-Toi’s Kodachrome of Nefrtt, owned by Debbie Misotti. Since then it seems that virtually every year has a group of Grand Champion Orientals from San-Toi which also includes a regional win or two.

In 1987-88 GRC Kimeron’s Blackberry* bred and owned by Sandy West, the daughter of two San-Toi cats, GRC San-Toi Blackberry of Kimeron and San-Toi’s Jedi Knight of Kimeron, was CFA’s best OSH and 5^th best cat in the country. Dee and Connie knew from the moment they saw her at Sandy ’s house as a little kitten that she was something special. She earned her national win on almost entirely local shows; she only went to about five out of state. Now she is living at Dee and Connie’s house and they say she could go right back into the ring as is. This is very rare. Not all Orientals “hold” once their show days are over. The standard favors a young cat and many retired Oriental grands loll happily at home looking more like furry sausages than show cats. Bless their pointy little heads; but not Blackberry. Sleek and gleaming ebony, with a perfect profile and a drop dead front look, by all accounts Blackberry on the show bench was the epitome of the stylized Oriental cat and oh those ears! As Dee puts it, “We definitely have an aim in our breeding program: ears, ears, and ears.” Don’t let that fool you though, they get everything else too.

 The same year that Blackberry was Best cat there was another Oriental in the top twenty, GRC Leggs Sylphide* was 15^th best cat. In perfect Art Deco harmony, in the most Art Deco of cat breeds, Sylphide’s porcelain white absolutely complimented Blackberry’s onyx black. I must admit that I never saw Blackberry in the flesh, but I saw Sylphide at nine months old, a new Grand Champion, and I thought she was the most perfect cat that I had ever seen.