I first heard of the Tonkinese in 1993 in Cat World Magazine, how little did I realise what effect this wonderful breed would have on my life! As a family we have had Siamese cats since before I was even born! In December 1999 we lost are last Siamese, Pepper, at the grand age of 19! My mum had bought the book 'Tonkinese Cats' by Linda Vousden and in 2000 we rescued a mother and daughter pair Milli and Mika. We were hooked!

After the traditional period of adjustment we took the step of letting them out. Mika was brought back 3 times by neighbours and the decision was made that the cats would have to be confined to the house. Soon after we had our run built which is linked to the house by a large drain pipe!!

Our pleasure from this beautiful, affectionate pair was sadly short lived as Mika died in November 2001. We had been considering getting a pair of kittens for some time as Mika liked to play so much but Milli wasn't fussed. The day we lost her I searched the Tonkinese Cat Club looking for breeders with Kittens. I contacted Karen Durden who fortunately had two girls who had not been booked at two weeks old. Twelve weeks later Sapphire and Jasmine arrived in their new home. Eight months later Taya and Willow arrived! In 2003 I decided to buy a boy to show as a neuter. Kushi arrived home in June, and lives up to the reputation of the reds, always being the one to get into mischief.

It was around this time that I decided that I really did want to breed these wonderful cats so that others could enjoy them too. The fist thing to do was to decide on a prefix. After months of consideration I came up with Tarjjika. Tarj as Milli's pedigree name was Americat Milli Vanilli of Tajens and her daughter was Mika

In May 2004 I decided that it was time to get a place of my own so that I could be a full time Tonk slave! It was time to part the group of Tonks living at my Mum's house and have my two - Taya and Kushi, come and live with me. Kushi had other ideas and being the huge chunk of a boy found living in a flat to much to cope with and Willow, Taya's sister was missing her so in the end we decided to swap Kushi for Willow and Kushi continues to reside with my Mum and his beloved stairs!! In April Steve and I moved into a house in Caversham, Reading.

In July 2005 our first litter of Tonkinese kittens arrived, and we continue to work with this wonderful breed. I actively promote the breed and am a member of the Tonkinese Breed Club Committee and the Breed Advisorory Committee. I had a beautiful Tonkinese Stud Boy for 4 years. He retired at the end of 2010 after siring lots of beautiful kittens! He now lives the life of luxury in a Welsh Valley, with the freedom to catch mice and play with his new best friend, a border collie!

After working with the Tonkinese breed for 6 years and achieving an Imperial Grand Champion Title with our foundation girl, Taya, we were keen to work with a second breed. We were certain that we wanted to keep to the foreign section and after much research decided that the Egyptian Mau was the breed for us! We believed that they would get on well with the Tonkinese and would fit into the house well.

We were not disappointed!

After meeting Jo and Lauren of Starrsailor Egyptian Maus at the Lincoln show in 2008, we kept in touch. Their girl beating out Tonk girl on a number of occasions - she is gorgeous! Surprisingly this helped us fall even more in love with the Maus!

We were delighted when Jo contacted us in January 2009 to say that one of her girls had had a litter and there was a particularly promising girl in the litter and would we like her!

As you can imagine we jumped at the chance and have not looked back! Misty has captured our hearts and has done remarkably well on the show bench, which is an added bonus!

In 2010 Maulogy Dotty Diamond joined the house, we love her affectionate nature and she too has done exceptionally on the bench, gaining Best of Variety twice!

With two Mau girls and no stud boys anywhere near us we started looking for our own stud boy.

We were extremely lucky to be put in touch with Constance Carroll in Denver USA. She had a litter with a very promising silver boy who was not quite 2 months old!

After a long wait Gazer arrived in the UK on 27 May 2011 and came home from quarantine on 26 June 2011.

Find out more about him on his own page - "Mau Stud"