January 2008 Newsletter - United Burmese Cat Fanciers

How I Met My First Burmese
San-Dans Christmas Belle - “Kyrabelle”
I live in Ontario Canada, and my cattery is Gingerhill
Sable Burmese. Back in the mid 1970’s I cat sat for a
friend who did a lot of world travel, he had a champagne
Burmese named Kyra. After a trip in 1977 as a thank you
for all the cat sitting he asked if I’d like a Burmese also,
and gave me the money for one. I found the San-Dans Cattery
in Toronto who had a kitten born on Christmas Day
named San-Dans Christmas Belle, and had Halton Ridge
Alfie as her sire. When getting her I had a long chat with
the breeder and also got the papers. The breeder became
my breeding mentor.
Belle, who I called Kyrabelle, became my first breeding
queen in 1978. The San-Dans cattery had to go out of business
due to a family health concern and I was given another
of her breeding females San-Dans Minnie Mouse. From
there I imported my first Mahajaya Toffee cat in 1980,
Pandit Ginger, for my breeding program, and later in 1990 I
brought up the last Toffee daughter, Pandit Rachel.
Larry Jelinek
Gingerhill Sable Burmese
Traditional Cattery’s adventure in Burmese began with a
heart attack – congestive heart failure and cardio myopathy
to be exact. Twelve years ago, my husband, Donald, faced
a total lifestyle change – from active professional painter
to housebound invalid – from gregarious people person, to
one who was alone long hours each day. We determined a
pet would be a solution. Dogs required too much work and
time. We needed someone who loved people, was entertaining
and could oversee itself – a cat. My husband, being
the researcher, began a quest for the cat breed that would
best fit that description. Of course, we chose the Burmese.
Next, we had to find a Burmese breeder. We found a listing
for Burmese kittens in the paper, which lead us to “Elwood
P. Dowd”, a Champagne male. Though Woody would
never be honored in the show ring, he had all the wonderful
qualities of the Burmese – smart, playful, and ever present
at our side. At twelve years old, he still maintains all of
these traits – though he is a bit crankier with a new kitten’s
antics.
Four years after Donald’s original diagnosis, he was getting
back on his feet – able once more to venture somewhat
out of the house. This left Woody alone. Not good! We
found a playmate for Woody. By now we had researched
more heavily into the Burmese breed, and found a breeder,
not an ad in the paper.
We had our first exposure to the contemporary
headed Burmese on this search. We
were totally unaware of the health problems that went with
the contemporary head. We chose a sable male kitten that
had the traditional type head out of a contemporary lit-
Evita’s Myrna loy of Traditional and Kittens
Page 6 UBCF January 2008