KIDDLYN KATTERY
A kattery husband is a rare and extremely valuable species that does a lot of work and gets very little credit. A kattery husband provides emotional, financial and physical support of all kattery activities. This includes, but is not limited to: care and feeding of tiny babies, medicating sick babies or adults, delivery and pickup of cats to and from the airport, the vet or cat shows, emergency care, at-home care for everyone when their partner goes to out-of-town shows, talking with customers about kittens available, helping break up cat fights, cleaning up carpeting and lifting all that heavy litter. We could probably do it without them, but it would be so much harder. They don’t always know the answer if you call, but they surely will try to help. They love us in spite of our passion for cats, which they sometimes don’t quite understand, but will indulge anyway. Kiddlyn’s Kattery Husband is Scott Thorniley. He is the man behind the scenes who helps make this all possible and manageable.
WHAT IS A KATTERY
Webster defines a “cattery” (original spelling) as a “place where cats are bred.” Our “kattery” (Donaldson’s New Word Dictionary, 1998) is much more than that. It is a place where kittens (in a kaleidoscope of kolors) are kissed, kuddled, and koddled. (Our obsession with the letter “K” is part of my Polish heritage, where many peoples’ names start with “K” and have lots of “K’s” within them.) Our kattery is just our home. We have a small number of breeder cats, and they live with us as pampered pets – the kind of pets that want to sleep under the covers with you and sit on your lap for hours watching TV.
We practice good kattery management in a number of ways. Our “boys” (also known as stud cats), are in a separate room. Because their biological urges would take over, they must be kept away from the “girls” (female cats of breeding age.)
Our maternity ward is a bathroom (we have three), the nursery is a separate bedroom, and the adult females have their own room to sleep in at night, with lots of cat trees, window perches, and exercise toys. We have a lovely solarium (with lots of sunshine and fresh air) which allows the cats to enjoy the beauty of the outdoors in a safe way. We don’t let our kittens run with the adults until they’ve had their full series of vaccinations, and we don’t let our current show cats run with the rest of the cats. In this way, we avoid the risk of exposure to viruses that could be brought home from a cat show. It sounds a little complicated, but we are lucky to have the space to make it work.
We didn’t invent these ideas. These recommendations come from some of the best veterinarians in the world (e.g., Dr. Niels Pedersen) who have written about effective kattery management practices. We don’t want to do anything to risk the health of our breeding females or any kittens we have on the ground. (“On the ground” just means kittens between the ages of 1-12 weeks.) We generally don’t have more than two litters on the ground at any given time. This gives us more opportunity to spend time with the babies as they grow up. It also gives us a backup mother if one mother has any problems with milk or gets sick. We spend a great deal of time handling the babies, so that they will enjoy it as adults and will know what to do if they become show cats.
We participate in the CFA Cattery Inspection Program and have been evaluated as a CFA Cattery of Excellence since 1994. This means that we not only conform, but exceed the standards for space, conditions, light, temperature, cleanliness, ventilation and a number of other factors which deal with the quality of life for cats.
RETRIED SHOW CATS
Because we want to keep our kattery small, we don’t keep more than 3-4 female breeders at any given time. We often place our adults after they’ve given us a kitten we’d like to keep. Sometimes these cats will be shown for a while to attain Grand status in CFA. Sometimes these cats are already Grand Champions in CFA and we want them to have a wonderful life as someone’s pillow buddy. The adults we make available are generally 1-4 years of age, and are already spayed/neutered. Adults make wonderful pets, especially the ones who have been shown and are extremely well socialized. They are experienced travelers and have been exposed to a wide variety of life’s situations.
People often ask if these cats “will bond with them” as well as a kitten will. Japanese Bobtails are extremely intelligent. They will bond (at any age) with the person who gives them love and affection — and food. All of our adults are sold with a full guarantee on personality. Since owning any cat is a long-term commitment, we want you and the cat to be happy. To ensure that the new cat adjusts to your human and animal family, we always allow an appropriate adjustment period with a full refund if it does not work out. See our Availability Page for more information on the retired show cats currently available.
OUR BREEDING PHILOSOPHY
We breed for three things that we consider equally important. We breed for type (which means how closely our Bobtails meet the CFA standard of perfection.) As breeders, our goal is conforming to the standard to preserve and improve the breed where possible.
We breed for health. We have placed outstanding show cats who did not produce healthy kittens. We have learned that health is more a genetic factor than anything else. We only use those cats in our breeding program who have had no history of any serious upper respiratory infections which could produce a chronic carrier state and affect the health of their newborn kittens. We monitor the health of kittens and cats, keep records on all health problems we encounter and keep track of any health problems reported to us by customers. We do not use cats for breeding that demonstrate any condition which could be inheritable (passed down to their kittens). We disclose all health information on any cat or kitten we sell and encourage you to talk with our personal veterinarian or any of the veterinarians in the clinic we have used since 1985.
We breed for temperament. This quality seems more influenced by genetics than anything else. We learned this after many years of trying to bond with kittens that were unexplainably shy. Sometimes the kittens we didn’t spend as much time with turned out wonderfully. The lesson for us was that temperament comes from that unique combination of genes that each parent gives. When it’s good, you can’t damage it. When it’s not good, you can’t fix it. We don’t use a cat for breeding unless it has an outstanding personality, and prefer to use only those cats for breeding who have at least three generations of outstanding personality behind both parents. In many cases, we have 5-6 generations of cats we personally raised behind the kittens we sell. This helps to ensure the continuation of the kind of temperament that is most desirable for pet owners, as well as the temperament that makes a Bobtail what it is.