CFA & TICA registered and DNA PKD tested negative

Line Chasing

So why do people take the time to research the pedigree’s of their cats?  Isn’t there enough to do with all the daily grooming, feeding, loving, litter box changing and all the other things that go with cat ownership?

It has taken me awhile to figure this out and finally one of my mentors explained it in a way that I could finally grasp.

If you are going for a certain expression, body type, etc., you have to look at the pedigree to see what you are working with in your breeder cats. You cannot successfully breed two cats with tall ears and no dome and expect tiny little ears and a perfect dome and head type (especially if their ancestors all had tall ears and poor doming.) You must have pedigrees/lines that support your goals. A pedigree filled with ancestors that possess traits that you want to duplicate on both parents will increase the likelihood of those traits coming out in the kittens produced. In other words, the higher percentage of contributed genes from your preferred type, the more likely that type will be produced in the offspring.

Logically then, as you go back in the generations of the parents pedigrees, each generation contributes less influence on a new generation.

So what if you are new to the Persian-Himalayan world and you do not have the benefit of having seen all the DMs, GCs and other cats that will be found in your little girl or boys pedigree?  Well, that is exactly where I am in this process. I have long admired Himalayans but I do not have personal knowledge of the cats that our most admired breeders have had by seeing those cats in the ring.

That is why I want to say “thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you so much” to the long-established breeders for placing photographs of your cats on your websites and allowing we newbies to grab a view and sometimes a copy of the photographs for our line chasing pedigrees. I understand that there are some copyright issues and I always will provide that information when it is available.

On the negative side, I remain in a disadvantage if I can only see physically or photographically those wonderful GC/NW/RWs and don’t take into account the ancestors that I haven’t seen. What if those other “unseen” cats have a long muzzle, ears that should be on a Boston Terrier, and a body of a dachshund? Short story, I’m bummed. I will not produce my CFA standard kitten.

Without access to this information, we limit the success of new breeders to the fancy and we run the risk to doing harm to one of the top reasons we do what we do; improvement of the breed we love.

Thank you to all who understand that no matter how long you have been in the fancy, you have a responsibility to mentor all those interested.

If you care to share photographs of your cats that appear in my pedigrees, I am always happy to accept them.   Please send them by email to memnonhimi@comcast.net

© 2008 Memnon Himalayans