My “Love” for cats must have started with my “Teddy Bear “as mine was a real live Siamese and in hindsight must have been from the very first Siamese in Canterbury, yes I am no longer young in body, just in heart.

We, my husband David and I, did not actually apply for the” Iluka or Tartarus” Prefix until the mid-1980’s, by which time I had already been showing Pets for several years. Over the years we have bred and shown, Siamese & Orientals, Burmese & Mandalay’s, British & Scottish Folds, with all the associated family groups for these breeds, Russian Blue & Whites, and 3 Exotic Neuters, we have both exported and imported many cats around the world.

Then I became a Shorthair Judge followed up by completing further studies and achieving Senior All Breeds status.  Everything went well, really well in fact, with assignments all over Australia and NZ.  National and Royal shows through to small club shows, all equally enjoyable and memorable.

That was until the 2010/11 Earthquake shook Christchurch.  Our Cat breeding days were quite clearly over.  Our cats were dispersed far and wide as our home was to need major repairs.  It took over 5 years before our home was virtually rebuilt.

During this time I needed to step away from Cats completely, so just under 3 years ago I resigned as a Judge.  Now our house and life has been rebuilt and I am happy to say that I have this October 2019 been accepted back as an All Breeds by our NZCF.

Dave & I have also retired from working so our days are our own; we have the Grey Nomad Caravan, 2 grown up children, Charlotte and John, plus 6 lovely grandchildren.  We also have one very spoilt and much loved cat, Adeyla, our only remaining Russian Blue from our breeding days,

I can now look forward to Judging again where ever whenever anyone invites me to attend and sometimes I might even bring Dave along for the ride.

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