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Maryhill Cattery, Axel B. Fiedler
The
history of Maryhill cattery runs back to 1977. That year, as a 9 year
old boy, my parents bought me book about cats and their different breeds
(I am sure, they couldn't have known, what they did...). 2 cats pictured
caught me completely: a Himmalayan seal and a Persian black-smoke. A little
time later a breeder in my home town advertised kitten for sale. Of course
I persuaded my parents to visit them and the next day our first cat moved
into our home. It was Tasso vom Glockenberg, a himmie red-point. That
was 1977 and those from you, who are long enogh in the cat fancy, will
be able to imagine, how he looked liked. Wonderful blue eyes and a wonderful
long nose with even any idea of a break... In Nov 1978 Tasso's breeders
invited us for a show and there I was able to see the second variety of
the persians I was fascinated by: black-smoke. WOW! It was love at the
first glance. Even now after quite 25 years for me the smokes are the
most admirable persians. In 1980 my mother joined the german FIFe club (I was still too young) and by a happy fluke, there were smoke breeders in our local goup. Within the following year our second cat moved in: Zilli vom Sonnenstuhl a double granddaughter of Ch.Int. Sandor vom Garmshof (the smoke pictured in my first book), one of the most famous smokes in the 70s and the ancestor of many beautyful smokes. Unfortunately Zilli inherited all good qualities from the Garmshof line, but one - the most important one - was missing: she had a very poor contrast. Anyway, she failed at two shows. Because we were not that skillful, she was spayed.
At the show in 1978 my mother was attracted by a special cat: longhaired (=persian), brown (=chocolate) and green-eyed (stop, my books told me that choc persians have orange eyes). "Mom you must be wrong" were the son's words. It was an other book that turned my attention to a variety in the persinas: brown-smoke (in the late 70s this colour only have been theory). That would be perfect: mom gets her brown and the son his smoke!
Because of the experiences we had made with Zilli, we learned what was important to look for. No doubt that there will be any chocolate-smoke to buy, so we decided to look for a solid chocolate. The early breeders of chocolates had a hard job running. The first chocolates appearing at the cat shows looked much more like a heavy Javenese (Oriental Longhair) than like a persian. But step by step more and more typy chocolates entered the scene. Unfortunately there were still any cats, we would have liked to own. By hazard I got in contact with a young breeder, who was working with cats out of a cattery, which was working with a different breeding program: chocolate-carriers! I was looking for this breeder and so I got in touch with Dagmar Fonger ("Geshoron's"). That days she was expecting some litters of her chocolate male Sueno Legerepi, who was indeed looking like a persian. Sueno had was nominated for Best in Show several times and got his certificates with any problems. AND Dagmar Fonger was breeding for smokes, too!!!
Unfortunately no smoke females (or even the already possible chocolate-smokes) were born. So in 1986 the chocolate female Geshoron's Patricia and the blue-smoke carrier Geshoron's Ruben moved in. Both went International Champion with no problems, they were looking just like the other persians at the shows these days. As life goes on, Patricia didn't get babies (Ruben has already proven) and so she was spayed after two false pregancies.
On a show in january 89 we fell in love with a litter of extreme black kitten. Extreme typed persians were already known, but they dindn't please us, till then. We realized that we need an extreme female to make a step forward with our breeding-program (which breedings?). This type had Easy-Bee v. Gunayel, our later founder female. She was out of the lines: Bar-B, Midas, Jadon and Gwenderos. Easy was the female carbon copy of one of her ancestors Gr.Ch. Lullaby Abracadabra.
He planned to keep two black-smoke girls out of our first litter in 1991 from Ruben X Easy, but the litter was of two blue and blue-smoke boys. We kept the blue-smoke male Maryhill Aaron-Avigdor and bought a female for him: Chanel Nr. 1 v. Bel Caprice, a chocolate-smoke girl out of Geshoron's X Legerepi. Finally I had a cat with the colour that was quite a phantome to me. Because we had the son, we decided to neuter the father. That's been a very big mistake, because Aaron was infertile. The next litter we had was out of Euro-Champion Lights-Out v. Gunayel (red) X Easy: Euro-Pr. Maryhill Blackbeth (black) and Maryhill Beauty-Belinda (tortie), we kept.
Friends of us imported a fabulous male: Gr.Ch. & Gr.Ch.Int. Tyland On The Road Again (chocolate-point). Bred with him, Easy had in January and December 1994 two outstanding litters:
Ch.Int.Maryhill Cracker-Jack (black)
Ch.Int.Maryhill Clinton (black)
Maryhill Chionatulander (black)
Maryhill Courageous Delay (blue) Ch.Int. Maryhill Dirty Dancer (blue)
Ch.Int. Maryhill Dream Girl (black)
Maryhill Diabolo (black)
After Aaron was neutered, we kept Maryhill Chionatulander ("Chio") as our new stud. Bred to Belinda we kept the black female Ch. Maryhill Emilou, who was supposed to lead the cattery in the future (was she a choc carrier?). But if there is something going wrong, everything is going wrong: Easy and Belinda were spayed, Chanel didn't get pregnant and Emilou had an uterus desease and was spayed, too. For the present this was the end of breeding, we had a male and no girls.
After studying at the university, I started again with Honeymoon of Little Cloud (tortie; a daughter of Ch.Int. Maryhill Cracker Jack) and Carmencita of Little Cloud (chocolate-tortie; double granddaughter of Ch.Int. Maryhill Cracker Jack) in 1999. To reach the goal of the smokes, I bought in 2001 the black-smoke female Estagel Heaven's Wonder. A breathtaking beauty out of famous lines (Marhei, Palmetto).
Following my intention, I asked in autumn 2001 Christine Eimke (Pussini) for a breeding of Carmencita to her choc-smoke male Pussini's Sweet Dreams (quite the one and only choc-smoke male in germany). She consented and in April 2002 I had my first litter of choc-smokes, a litter I've been waiting for since 1987:
1 male chocolate-smoke
2 female chocolate-smoke
1 male cream-smoke
1 female chocolate
1 female chocolate-tortie-smoke
To me it was unbelievable, I had my first smoke litter and 4 of them are chocolates!!
I kept the girl with the strongest type Maryhill Indirah,
even though I was in love with the colour of the choc-tortie-smoke Maryhill
Irma La Douce. My future plans will be breeding the cream-smoke (and pure
breeding for chocolate) male Incognito to Heaven's Wonder to get some
lovely tortie-smokes (who are carrying chocolate).
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