The story of my love of Goldens  starts back in the mid sixties when my former husband bought an Afghan Hound puppy for our first anniversary. I had not seen one prior to this, it was love at first sight. We did very well showing Shalakhan going to Melbourne Royal Show and Brisbane Royal Show via Peak Hill and returning via Trundle or was it the other way around? It's a long time ago now. We won Best in Show at the Pal Show, 3500 entries in those days and went on to win Best in Show at the Sydney Royal. Shalakhan also won 2 Best in Show awards at the Afghan Hound Club Speciality Shows.

Dog showing went by the way side as children came along, after which I returned to study Law. After finishing and getting my fill of overseas travel I decided I would like to get a cat. We had always had Chinchilla Persians growing up but I was disappointed to see that the breed had changed over the years. I obtained "Mittens" a Birman but was stunned to discover the Australian Tiffanie breed. I obtained my first Australian Tiffanie, Tippi in 2001 after seeing a picture of them in the local paper. Although I hadn't thought of showing and breeding, I was encouraged to do so by the breeder.  I took to it immediately.

2002 with Tippi 8 months
(Courtesy of mel@animaleyes.com.au)
 

About the middle of 2002 I came across the Golden Chinchilla Persian in a magazine and was very taken with the colour. At the next show I asked Hetty Berntrop, one of Waratah's geneticists, whether the Golden Chinchilla could be used in the Australian Tiffanie breeding program.
The answer was yes, fabulous! I put this information in the memory bank for the future. As it happened the future came sooner than I expected when one of the Australian Tiffanie breeders  brought a Golden Shaded kitten to the Pet-Expo in December that year. Amba-Neike was not the picture I had in mind but I saw her as a starting point. Many of the breeders at the show were enthusiastic about developing a new colour but this support evaporated over the following month or two because of the vehement opposition of the President of the club, who wasn't at the show. Notwithstanding that, the colour was recognised in 2003 after the matter having being considered by the Waratah Committee and the Genetics Committee. Amba made her debut at the kitten show in March 2003 and after this the club split, some breeders stayed with Waratah, while some decided to go to CFA.

After Easter 2003 I imported a Tiffanie from NZ, Kiwi. He was a Golden Shaded, a descendent of the Shaded Golden Persian, Osirus Sunja.

I mated Amba and Kiwi and she  had 3 Goldens in her first litter, mysteriously I lost the whole litter. Her second litter had 2 Goldens in the litter but these 2 also were lost. Finally in January 2005 she produced 2 male Goldens in the litter after I decided to use Rascal instead of Kiwi. They are Jonte and Gastonne who have both done very well in the shows. Gastonne displays hardly any banding in the legs and his shading is paler than his brother Jonte. I decided to keep him entire and use him at  stud. He has had 2 litters to date. Amba produced a female Golden, Tessa in August 2005. Kiwi returned to NZ after Easter 2005 to continue the NZ Tiffanie breeding program. I am working towards developing a tipped Golden and hope to also develop a Golden Tipped Silver in the future.


I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Waratah Committee and members who were so supportive of me during a difficult time in bringing my dream to a reality.

Yuri at 3 months
   Gen 3 kitten