Purrfect pedigrees Siamese

Purrfect pedigrees Siamese

We are Siamese, if you please

PEDIGREE PROFILE
Breed number: 24 to 32.
Weight: males 3.8kg to 4.8kg, females 1.9kg to 4.2kg.
Temperament: Friendly, devoted, lively and intelligent.
Availability: easy.
Colours: most commonly seal point, also available in red and blue points, apricot, lilac, cinnamon and chocolate tortie and tabby.

Mischievous, intelligent, loyal and loving — you’ll never be the same again once you’ve been owned by a Siamese!

Be prepared as your life will never be the same again once you open your door — and your heart — to a Siamese!
Owners and breeders of this loud and loveable breed cannot speak highly enough of them, and promise that while a Siamese will change your life, it will certainly be for the better.
Ross Davies of the Siamese Cat Association simply adores these graceful beauties: “They are more intelligent than most other breeds — they are very outgoing, friendly and love human company.

They’re also dog-like and will even play fetch with you!”
Niki Hill of the Siamese Cat Club agrees: “There is no doubt that Siamese are very vocal and individual, often displaying idiosyncrasies which can be funny, endearing and very naughty. If you like your cats to be loyal, loving and sometimes challenging, a Siamese may be for you.”
While Siamese are very affectionate lap cats who enjoy having cuddles, they are also one of the liveliest (and nosiest) breeds. They can open doors, drawers and even windows as Ross has found, so he has taken to putting child locks on his cupboards to keep out inquisitive Siamese noses!
Niki adds: “Siamese are not cats for everyone but if you want an active, determined cat with a distinctive yowl and conversation, you may be ready to lose your heart to a Siamese — but remember, once you fall for a Siamese it can be a life time obsession!”

THE LOOK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
All Siamese are ‘pointed’, which means they have colour on their faces, tails and legs, while the rest of their body is cream or white. While the seal point is the most well-known pattern in  the Siamese, there are now more than 34 different colours and patterns in the breed, including chocolate, blue and lilac points, caramel, red, cinnamon and fawn, as well as tortie and tabby.
They are famous for their beautiful blue eyes and large, bat-like ears, with long, lithe bodies and thin, whip-like tails with soft shorthaired coats.
Traditional Siamese have more rounded faces than their modern counterparts and have shorter bodies (as seen above). Many breeders are devoted to keeping the old look going.

ORIGINS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Siamese is one of the oldest breeds in the fancy, and there are several myths and legends about them. It is believed that the cats belonged to the Royal Family of Siam and were used as guards of the ancient temples.
Siamese originate from Thailand and a British diplomat working there in the 1800s discovered the cat. In 1884 the departing British Consul, General Gould, was given a Siamese as a leaving present and the cat’s kittens were shown by his sister at the 17th Chelsea Palace Show in 1885. At that time there were four main colours — seal, chocolate, blue and lilac point — but breeders have since introduced many other colours.

HEALTH & WELFARE . . . . . .
In the past, some Siamese were prone to having lymphosarcoma, a common cancer, and progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) was also detected in earlier lines. But breeders have worked hard over the years to screen their cats from these diseases.
While they may be a high maintenance breed to keep up with, to compensate they have a very low maintenance grooming routine with just a hand groom needed to keep their shorthaired coats smooth.
Niki says: “Siamese have an illfounded reputation for being delicate in constitution and in need of special food. Nowadays we know that Siamese do best on simple, good cat food, and in fact they are often better on the less rich brands.”

DID YOU KNOW?
Siamese cats have had leading roles in many fi lms, such as the feline protagonists from ‘That Darn Cat’, ‘Bell Book and Candle’ and Kit from the TV series ‘Charmed’ — not forgetting Blue
Peter cat Jason!

KITTEN TIME . . . . . . . . . . .
Kittens vary in price depending on the area of the country. Most breeders specialize in specific types and colours so you may have to travel if you’re after a specifi c colour.
Ross advises buying from a registered breeder and make sure you visit the litter in their home: “Look for outgoing, friendly kittens that show no signs of illness. Never buy a kitten that is not well. The breeder should complete any treatment before the kitten leaves home.”

 DREAM TEAM . . . . . . . . . .
Siamese have strong personalities and will dominate many other breeds, but they have a lot in common with Orientals as they have similar temperaments.

DID YOU KNOW?
Legend has it that Siamese got their crossed eyes and tail kink when two Siamese were sent to fi nd a goblet belonging to a King. The one that guarded it was so scared of losing the goblet,

he stared intensely at it and wrapped his tail tightly around the base. These traits can still be seen today, although this is a fault which breeders are trying to eradicate.

Living with a Siamese
NIKKI SMITH FROM DIDCOT, OXFORDSHIRE, ADORES HER ‘NAUGHTY TODDLERS’ — LILAC POINTED TWO-YEAR-OLD YODA AND HIS SIX-YEAR-OLD MUM LILI.

Q : Where did you hear about the Siamese?
Our next-door neighbours are Siamese slaves and had tried to warn us that Siamese are completely addictive! We already had a moggy and couldn’t see life being that different with two cats!

Q : Did you do any research into the breed?
We did a huge amount of research into breeders fi rst and foremost. We found a breeder who was about an hour away from us and we visited the breeder when Yoda was three weeks old.
I looked on a couple of Siamese forums as to what to expect and talked to our neighbours, then we went ahead and got Yoda, our fi rst Siamese... and life changed! So much so, I started
writing a blog on how time consuming a Siamese is!
His mum Lil then joined us for her retirement and now it’s like having two naughty toddlers in the house!

Q : What are they like at home?
Half the reason I did my blog is for prospective owners to read — people can tell you all day long how different Siamese are, but until you have one you can’t quite believe it.
Siamese are like little people, they talk to you, follow you around and take up all of your time! I have full blown conversations with our two!
Yoda is very cuddly. He likes being cradled like a baby whereas Lil is happy on your lap or my husband’s shoulders.
At bedtime they both come in the bathroom with us, Lil will sit on the edge of the bath and Yoda on the edge of the sink. He likes to chew on a toothbrush then he likes my husband to fi ll his hands with water and he’ll drink from them! He then runs upstairs and climbs under the duvet, and Lil will follow him up and sit on him as if to say: ‘He’s under here mum’!
In the winter if I take my dressing gown off the back of the door, they’re both round my feet and will climb all over me until I take it off and then they climb in it and go to sleep!
There’s honestly never a dull day with a Siamese! They greet you when you come home, which is lovely. I wouldn’t change them for the world!

Q : Do you have any advice for potential Siamese owners?
If anyone is thinking of getting a Siamese do your research on breeders, see mum and kittens together. Don’t try and cat-proof your house, Siamese own the house — you are no longer the owner... just a slave!

Getting a new cat can sometimes feel wrong after losing another

 

Learning to love again

Getting a new cat can sometimes feel wrong after losing another. Is it possible to work through the grief and learn to love again? Claire Newton investigates.

As cat owners, words cannot describe how distressing it is when a beloved cat passes away. Although grief is a completely natural reaction to loss, sometimes the pain can make us fearful of ever loving a cat again. The heartache can seem so overwhelming and the devotion to our cat’s memory so strong, that people are sometimes faced with feelings of fear or disloyalty if they consider getting a new cat.
In order to understand where these confl icting feelings may be coming from, it is important to accept how intense grief can be. When a cat passes away, owners can go through the same grieving process as they would for any other family member. Only pet-related grief is still not widely recognised in society, and we are often expected to ‘just get on with it’.
Sadder still, owners are sometimes faced with having to make a decision about when it is best to let their cats go, and that in itself can feel an unfair responsibility. Similarly, death can occur suddenly as a result of tragic circumstances. Is it therefore any wonder that we may have trouble processing our bereavement?

Dealing with grief
Cathy Payne, from Devon, lost her sixyear-old tortie, Rosie, in a road accident three years ago. “I remember the last time I saw her,” explains Cathy. “I was playing with my son when she trotted by and miaowed to go out. I opened the window as I had many times before; she
sat there for a moment looking back at us, and then hopped off as usual to have an adventure.
“The next morning, the phone rang and I could hear my husband asking ‘Is she dead?’ My blood ran cold as I rushed downstairs. He said simply, ‘It’s Rosie, she’s been hit by a car’. The following days were devastating. Not only did I have to carry on with work, but I had to explain to my three-year-old daughter why Mummy and Daddy were crying, and why Rosie wasn’t coming home for her breakfast.”
A logical reaction to such pain is to avoid whatever caused this hurt in the fi rst place, and sadly for Cathy, and for many other cat lovers, the idea of going through the grief again is just too much, even if years of love came before.
“Three years on, and we are still sad about losing Rosie in such a devastating way,” says Cathy. “We will never get another cat. If the same thing happened again, I wouldn’t forgive myself.”
Interestingly,  Cathy now has two Labradors. “I don’t worry about the dogs as they are walked on the lead, but I dread the day they will naturally die. Losing Rosie has reminded us to treasure every day with them.”
But what if we desperately miss having a cat in our lives, yet feel as if we are disloyal if we look for another one?

“Never feel guilty. I always say that owning again is the biggest compliment that you could ever pay your cat.”

Don’t feel guilty
Daniel Ransom, from London, recalls this dilemma when he and his girlfriend suddenly lost their eight-year-old cat, Ragamuffi n, to cancer last year.
“Ragamuffi n’s death shocked us and we were left completely heartbroken,” Daniel explains. “Our home felt empty without a cat, but, whenever we considered getting a new cat, we felt as
if we were replacing her.
“We eventually went to our local rehoming shelter and asked to see the cat who had been there the longest. By bringing home a really deserving cat, we somehow felt that we could justify the
decision. We came home with Toby, a black and white moggy, who had been waiting for a home for over a year.”
Of course, this suggests that it is not just us who may miss out on cat ownership as a consequence of grief, but also cats themselves. Celia Hammond, founder of the Celia Hammond Animal Trust which rescues and rehomes thousands of cats every year, believes that pet bereavement can negatively affect the rate of rehoming.
“We experience grief-associated guilt from prospective owners all the time.
Someone may come in with good intentions of homing a cat, but it can quickly become too much and they’ll end up in tears over how they can’t take another one,” explains Celia. “We could fi ll our shelters six times over with rescued cats. We’re so overcrowded; we simply cannot keep up with the slow rate of rehoming.”
Perhaps our focus, therefore, should be on using our ingrained love for cats for further good, and view owning a new cat as an opportunity to provide a loving home. Celia agrees, and explains how guilt, although natural, is not necessary:

“Never feel guilty. I always say that owning again is the biggest compliment that you could ever pay your cat.”

Choosing another
Yet, what sort of cat should we bring home? Should we try to fi nd one that reminds us of our old friend? “Go for one completely different,” Celia recommends. “Otherwise, the similarity will never match up.”
Daniel agrees with this sentiment: “I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t feel strange when we first brought Toby home.
He’s so different to Ragamuffin that he almost seemed like an intruder! But, two months on, we now utterly love Toby for the individual cat that he is.”
So how has Daniel learnt to love a new cat and preserve Ragamuffin’s memory? “Toby has become so warm and affectionate, and it may sound silly, but he just seems really grateful to
have a home! I think that Ragamuffin would approve.”