December 18, 1913 - RARE
SIAMESE CATS BENCHED AT ASTOR
Romeo Kee Wan Kee and Todge the Dodge Receive First Awards.
Rare Siamese cats of royal pedigree
were the envy of all the other aristocratic felines at the twelfth annual
championship cat show of the Atlantic Cat Club in the Belvedere on the roof of the Hotel Astor, yesterday. These
cats came originally from the palace of the King of Siam, where they are regarded as semi-sacred. Through
centuries of breeding, the cat has not changed. Its color is light fawn, with
chocolate mask and deep blue eyes. In times of war Siamese cats are taken with the army and placed before the
trenches. The belief of the Siamese is that, because the cat is sacred, no harm
can befall it.
The Siamese which attracted much attention were shown by Mrs. G. E.
Taylor of Syracuse, N.Y. Romeo Kee Wan Kee received the blue ribbon for the best male and Todge the Dodge got
the blue ribbon far the best fermale. This article continues for
several paragraphs and can be read here in PDF Atlantic
Cat Show 1913
Atlantic Cat Show 1931 Siamese Awards
Siamese male, novice - First and winner, no name, owner, Mrs. Phylis E. Little; second, no name, owner, Mrs. Little; third, John, owner, Mrs. A.
Tidmarsh.
Siamese female novice-Tid Tid, owner, Mrs. Tidmarsh.
(John and Tid Tid shown below)
These new arrivals on the McAlpin roof are shown coming out
of the box cautiously, looking around for their owner, who is Mrs. A Tidmarsh,
of Port Washington, L.I. Starting at left they are Johnny, Franklin, Tid Tid and
Timmy.
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| The First Catnip Mouse
From The Cat Courier June 1923
CATNIP AS AN ASSET
Science and invention are every day making great strides in the
discovery of utility and value in plants commonly termed as "weeds" and "pests." Catnip, the lowly plant
despised and reviled by gardeners for so long, and usually pulled out of the earth
immediately upon discovery, has at last come into its own and now has a legitimate place
among cultivated plants—so, at least, declares Mrs. George Lewis of Mt. Vernon,
Ohio, who is raising the herb for profit.
The fact that cats like both mice and
catnip were what first gave Mrs. Lewis her idea of the catnip mouse. Since cats haunt
the cellars for mice and since they love to roll among, the sweet smelling catnip in the
back yard, why not combine the two for the pleasure of the household pet? After
some experimenting, Mrs. Lewis filially evolved the gray flannel mouse stuffed with
catnip, now seen in stores throughout the country.
Demand for the catnip mouse has grown so large that a cluster of small gray brick
buildings now make up its home and directly behind the factory is all acre of catnip
under cultivation by a nearby farmer." Catnip culture is difficult," Mrs. Lewis
explained, "because so little is known about it. Even the Department of Agriculture
could give us little information so that what we have done is
mainly the result of experimentation on our part. It is also hard
to procure seed."
The first crop of catnip she planted was a failure because the plants were so little and
grew so slowly that the weeds crowded them out. "This experience taught us that
the young plants require constant weeding," Mrs. Lewis smiled.
In the factory the catnip is prepared and ground, and the pleasant, gentle perfume
pervading the atmosphere there makes very obvious to one the reason for the love of
our feline friends for the herb. It is here too that the flannel mice are stuffed with
an electric motor machine.
Some of the work in the manufacture of the mice is necessarily done outside the
factory. Mrs. Lewis owns her own dies but the die cutting of the pattern from the dark
gray flannel must be done in other factories owning large power machines. Fifteen
sewers are employed in the town to put on the ears, tails, small bead eyes, and the perky
whiskers of the mice.
"It is harder to make the catnip mouse than would at first appear," declared its
inventor. '"It is difficult to secure sewers who have the artistic touch and can make
the mice look like mice. I also experience trouble in getting the materials—the thread
and flannel must match perfectly and since there is little demand for that particular
shade of gray I sometimes have to have
the materials made to order."
"Since the mouse sells for only 15 cents
in the stores," Mrs. Lewis continued, "the profit necessarily must come from selling a
great many of them at a low price. We have more orders than we can now fill
indeed, we have been rushed since Christmas. Placed in novelty shops, drug and
animal stores, the mice were in constant demand by the Christmas shoppers as unique
gifts for their cat loving friends."
That the mice are a paying proposition is shown in the fact that Mrs. Lewis is
planning to plant two more acres of catnip this spring. |
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AUGUST 1936 REGISTRATIONS SET RECORD FOR C. F. A.
The recorder takes pleasure in reporting that during August, the Cat Fanciers Association did the largest business of any month on its records. There were 275 registrations as against 192 in August, 1935; 167 in August, 1934, and a mere 29 in
August, 1933 — the latter before the special summer rate was adopted.
Cattery Registrations have broken all records.
Particularly noticeable this year is the amazing leap in registrations of Siamese, which not only exceeded those of any other color, but brought in a number of new Siamese breeders who not only
registered their Cattery names, but proceeded to "set up" entire pedigrees for their stock by registering whole generations of ancestors.
Until a few years ago, Siamese were regarded as oddities suitable only for pets, and few owners took the trouble to register them, with the result that there were many gaps in the pedigrees of the present generation.
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SEPTEMBER, 1936
Lambert Cattery Pals
This interesting picture of cat and dog friends is from Miss Jean Lambert, Montreal, Quebec, Can., who has written several articles on the Siamese cat published in Mayfair, a Canadian magazine. This Picture of Brutus and Tai was taken in France. At the time Miss Lambert lived in
Thomery, not far
from Paris, had quite a number of Siamese cats. Brutus the lovely Great Dane was most devoted to them and romped and played with them with great
gusto.
Brutus and Tai
Besides Brutus and the Siamese cats Miss Lambert's
pet family consisted of a goat and some tame crows, which used to tease the cats by snipping at their tails and fly off cawing madly. One day
Brutus, the Dane, wandered into a neighbor's estate and the caretaker not liking dogs, shot him through the eyes, which resulted in his losing the sight of one of them permanently. Back in New York he got
confused one day in the traffic and was never recovered. He was a super dog in every respect and very
valuable and Miss Lambert has never fully become reconciled to his loss.
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Dr. Joseph C. Thompson, president of the Burmese Cat Society of California, writes that two of the finest bred Siamese cats from his cattery, the Mau Tien of San Francisco, have just completed an auto journey to Six Gables, Cohasset, Mass., where they were sent as gifts to Col. and Mrs. C. Wellington Furlong. On the trip, the male, Tong-tin Mau had an argument with a huge short haired male. The colonel, who is a famous collector of wild African leopards, wrote to Dr. Thompson that he never before saw the speed and skill of a wild cat which was comparable to that of his new pet.
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March 1938
GRATEFUL TO DR. LITTLE
Evidently the scourge of infectious enteritis has been almost world-wide the past season. Reports from Europe show that it has been widespread both in England and France. and over here the epidemic has swept the country from coast to coast.
Mrs. Ruth H. Fisher writes as follows from San Francisco, Calif.: "The epidemic was terrible in spite of every precaution and a veterinarian present at all times at the Oakland show. Mrs. Wick of El Cerrito lost all but one of her
beautiful Siamese cats. The Best Siamese, Budda (which was one of her kittens sold to Mr. Harrison) being among those lost.
I am thankful to say all of my family came through it, but not without many
sleepless nights and many shots of serum.
"The article in last month's Cat Gazette on the serum was certainly welcomed and Mrs. Elsa Wick phones me to say 'That issue of the Cat Gazette alone was worth more than the price of a year's subscription to it."'
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Biggest Siamese
The Argonaut, San Francisco weekly paper, tells how Kwai Tse Mau
( Son of the Devil) recently posed for his statue before a group of art students and adds he is the largest Siamese cat in America, weighing 151 pounds. Dr. J. C. Thompson, owner of the cat, says it isn't the California climate but a California printer who produced that unusual Siamese. He believes that at 15 pounds, correct, Kwai Tse Mau can take American heavyweight honors for Siamese.
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March
1938
WE DISCOVER CATS
By Emily R. Page
It didn't take me long to realize that I had
married a man whose heart was not mine alone. He adores cats! Wherever we may be, it is but the work of a moment for him to traverse the straight line which is the shortest distance between him and the nearest cat. This keen interest
reawakened my own love of cats hibernating during busy years at college.
Since my husband loved cats so much, I thought we would truly appreciate a pedigreed cat if we could learn what points to look for in a
thoroughbred. But local libraries contained nothing on cats except what we could find in encyclopedias. My yearning desire to surprise my husband with a kitten on his birthday was thwarted because I did not dare buy one from a pet shop, as I did not know-what comprises a good cat. No one could tell me of any cat societies. But before I had time to visit. the Boston Animal Rescue League, we were
transferred to New York City.
We had been here only a week when an advertisement for Siamese kittens appeared and the very next day an announcement of the Atlantic Cat Show. We rushed over to the Hotel Taft. And how we enjoyed being at last among people who loved cats and knew all about them! We had an opportunity to study each type of cat, to subscribe to the "Cat
Gazette," and to find that the advertised
kittens we were considering came of good stock.
The following day found us the delighted owners of two Siamese kittens purchased from Mr. H. Wilber Baker of Baldwin, New York. They are so beautiful that I wanted to find some charmingly descriptive names, but from the first we recognized Scarlet and Melanie, so we couldn't call them
anything else. Scarlet is bold, daring, quick, while Melanie is retiring but affectionate. But if you've read, "Gone With the Wind," you know our kittens.
And so we discovered cats and these are the beginnings of the Page Cattery or whatever it may be called when it is duly established.
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CAT CHATS
Letter dictated to Mrs. Helen G. Fairchild by Manchu Kagan Ssu:
Dear Editor:
My young daughter, Ching Ling, and I have just returned from a 1,000 mile automobile trip to the San Francisco Cat Show and back. Of course, our mistress was a necessary evil to drive the car, feed us, etc., but we were really the girls that "went to town." I may as well say right here that I went "Best Siamese" in the show and Ching went "Best Siamese Novice." We brought back two blue
ribbons, a winners ribbon, two special award ribbons and two silver trophies.
Of course, we are getting a little blaze on this winning stuff because I was also Best Siamese cat in the A. C. A. Los Angeles show and Ching went Best Siamese kitten in the Hollywood show.
However, we do love to win when we see the happiness it brings to our owners—to say nothing of a few little extra morsels of food and petting for us.
I know my mistress had a good time in San Francisco and I heard her say she was so glad to see Mrs. Etherton again and to meet Mrs. Fisher, Mrs.
Walton and many others that she feels she knows through the pages of The Cat Gazette. I also heard her and many others say that the judge Mrs. Billie
Gerst, did a fine job of judging. She marked down our scores point by point and gladly gave the
results to cat owners so they could be compared. I know that I only beat Ching by two little bitty points and there were some folks there who, right to my blue eyed face, said that next year my
daughter would beat me. Hum!! Well, time will tell!
We loved the ferry boat ride across the bay and didn't know a thing about the big whale that was loose. Well, ignorance is bliss! We slept most of the journey home until the last morning when we could feel it in our bones that we were nearing
Carlsbad. Then we just had to jump around a little and meow. But on the whole we were very good cats.
Well, I'm putting away my show curtains until next year, now, and getting out my old smock and bedroom slippers. I have to "start
knittin' mittens for my soon expected kittens."
Yours,
Manchu Kagan Ssu.
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The
Cat Gazette
MAY, 1936
THE
RING AND THE TAIL
Miss Delle D. Smith of the Khyber Cattery, relates an interesting anecdote regarding the kinks so frequently found in the tails of Siamese cats. The story goes that an ancient Siamese king lost a large emerald ring, which he greatly treasured as a talisman, which would protect him and his subjects from all evil. While traveling over his kingdom one day he had the misfortune to lose this ring and immediately offered a large
reward.
Eventually the ring was found by a poor woodman and in order to keep the treasure safe until he could reach the king, his wife slipped it on the tail of their Siamese cat and tied the tail in a knot. To this experience of this particular cat called
"FeenFeen," the legend attributes the fact that some Siamese cats are born with kinked tails.
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September
1936
Baby
Foxes
Mrs. Elwood Wilson, Hillwood Cattery, of Knowlton, Quebec, has some lovely Siamese kittens she proposes to show at the Canadian Exposition in Toronto. Mrs. Wilson says the kittens follow her around the garden like a flock of sheep. As
Siamese cats are very rare in that part of the country, she is often asked if they are baby foxes. Vacation tourists should find double interest heading in that direction, there is so much of interest to see in the old French province of Quebec besides frolicking kittens at the Hillwood Cattery, and that is one place where it should be delightfully cool.
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"Daily News," Sunday, May 22, 1938
Bangkok, Siam - There is a famine in Siamese cats in Siam. The
felines once vied with elephants as one of Siam's chief exports to foreign
zoological gardens, but now they are so scarce that local prices have doubled
and tripled within a year. In some cases, a pure-blooded Siamese costs more in
Siam then in New York or London. Experts offer no explanation for the sudden
scarcity.
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"BREEDERS' GOSSIP"-
published May 1945
The well known Newton Cattery stock will be obtainable from two other breeders. Cats raised in the Newton Cattery have been sold to many
Siamese fanciers, and in two cases a pair has been bought, so 100% Newton stock is available from Mrs. Louise Des Marais, 140 Glenwood Avenue. East
Orange, New Jersey, and there are two litters that have been born in the Cattery
owned by Mrs. J. F. Goforth, 7661 Normal Avenue, La Mesa. California. King Rama Thibodi
has sired both litters. One is out of Newton's Aditi and the other is out of a queen bred at the Fairchild Cattery. The
arrival of King Rama caused quite a stir in California, because he is the full brother of the winner of Best Siamese at a Boston Show,
Newton's Commando. This outstanding stud unfortunately did not live long after being shipped from Massachusetts to
California.
There is in California, Blue Point stock that is not related to the Siam blood line and the Lanfine blood line. These Blue Points are descended from
Champion Ben Bleu, whose ancestry includes the name Paletta Rob. Of this line is
Wayoo, breeder-owner, Mrs. Blanche Warren. She has just shipped to Mrs. Harriet Ellinwood, R.F.D. 1, Box 141, Newton, Ohio, a fine Blue Point male stud, who comes from the same litter as Mrs. Warren's two Blue Point Champions,
Lom Konga, II, deCasa Gatos, a cat with extraordinarily deep blue eye color, and the female
Lom Ling deCasa Gatos. Breeders interested in an outcross for their Blue Point stock will welcome this arrival from the West. At the same time
another of the deCasa Gatos cats arrived. a Seal Point Queen, descended from the Fairchild stock. This same Blue Point ancestry makes the litter born to the Seal Point queen
Mei Li's Lulu Liang an interesting one, the sire again being Champion Lom Konga,
II. There are seven kittens, all Seal Points, of course, but carrying the blue gene from their sire. The queen has remarkably fine delicate type and is the granddaughter of that outstanding Seal Point Champion,
Nyima. The breeder owners of this litter are Mr. and Mrs. Charles Williams, 2727 East La Rosa Drive, El Monte, California.
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Siamese Kitten Match
- August 1951
Thirty-six kittens, all Siamese, aged from four to eight months were entered in the National Siamese Cat Club Kitten Match held August 25th at the home of Mrs. Claire Y. O'Brvon, president of the Club, in Scarsdale, N. Y. According to Miss Van Estes, Show Manager, this was the largest kindle of Siamese kittens ever collected for a Kitten Match in this country. More than 125 people attended the match.
C.F.A. Rules were followed, and the Judge was Mrs. Jane D. Stackhouse of Mt. Holly, N. J. Best Kitten was SP female, Millbrook's Mischief, owned by Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Roose, and Best Opposite Kitten SP Sea Puss Satan, owned
by Mr. and Mrs. W. I. Thompson
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STORK WORKS OVERTIME
- 1951
in California
Mrs. Kenneth Bartlett of La Canada, Calif., and her proud
Siamese,
Pixie's Ku-Ki of Kabar, with her king-size litter
In a season that saw even Jimmy Stewart, the ex-world's most eligible bachelor (our own title, but we hear thousands cheer), become the father of twins, probably anything could happen, and certainly in the Stork Department of the thorough-bred cat world, did.
We show here pictures received of two recent unusually large
births, unusually large births with cats being anything over eight or nine kittens.
Mrs. Nikki Slobodian, of Louisville, Kentucky, is still a little nonplussed, as she sits with the Persian father of the litter, Champion Glad-Low's Red Coach of Shawnee, who in turn seems to be momentarily overcome with incredulity.
The mother of this original litter of ten, all but one of which lived, is doing well, although she is accused now by some of being a sly thing, as her first litter
consisted of one (kitten). She retorts that her second litter of seven should have been sufficient warning for this third and final, to date, brood.
(photo not shown)
Mrs. Kenneth Bartlett of La Canada, California, on the other hand, seems to
have relaxed sufficiently by now from her Pixie's Ku-Ki of Kabar's birth of ten
Seal point Siamese to enjoy them, although Ku-Ki is keeping a weather eye out to see just what Mrs. Bartlett is
doing with that tenth child up there. All of Ku-Ki's children lived (there was added excitement, incidentally, as they were born on the third birthday of the Bartlett's daughter, Deborah Jeanne), and Ku-Ki reports the entire family, assisted by Mrs. Bartlett and medicine-dropper feedings three times a day, is doing well. The only misfortune was the passing on of the Papa, Mrs. Alexander's Lo-Tzen, a short time before the event took place.
It is unfortunate that as Nature brought into the world these nineteen fine babies, she elected to take away one little cat-life, and one large, full-grown, loved one. But at a time like this,
Philosophy must take a back-seat to feeling, therefore to both new mothers and children, paeans of joy for your safe
survival, and our congratulations to your patient, good-looking midwives.
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October 1951 - Mr. and Mrs. Leigh Manley (all of our
correspondents seem to be leaning heavily on England this month) report that they have just imported a four month old seal point Siamese female "Imported Bintang Batik of the Dark
Gauntlets" whose sire is Prestwick Poo Too. Mrs. Duncan Hindley's 11 year old stud. Her
dam. Prestwick Persil, is litter sister of Mrs. Hindley's Champion
"Prestwick Penglima Pertama."
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1952
- Moravia, N.Y. - These 10 Siamese kittens, pictured four weeks after their
birth, were in a litter of 12, believed by the owner, Mrs. Keith Elliot, to be
the largest on record. The other two were dead at birth. The mother Melanie
Sing, is 18months old. This was her forst litter. (AP Wirephoto) |
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SIAMESE-AMERICAN GOES BACK TO THE OLD COUNTRY
- April 1952
Mr. Van Usten, The Royal Thai Consulate General, had always wanted a beautiful Siamese cat. And his wish was
granted, not in Thailand, but here in America, when lovely Patricia Medina, Paramount Star, presented him with
HOLLYWOOD PLU PERFECT on the set of "Botany Bay".
Mr. Van Usten expects to create quite a sensation with Plu when he returns with her to the land of her forebears. It will be
interesting to learn whether she will enter Thailand as an "Imported Domestic" or an "American Siamese"!
(Irene Bjerring,
Siamese Specialty Judge and Owner of the Hollywood Cattery was breeder and donor of Hollywood Plu Perfect.)
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Siamese Portrait for
1952 NCW Seal
Miss Lydia O. Cypher, Executive Secretary of the Original National Cat Week has announced that the Cat Week Seal this year will bear the head of a Blue Point Siamese.
The cat chosen for this honor is Cable's Crown Prince who starred in a series of captivating photos in the January issue of CATS Magazine. The Photographer is Rollin A. Cable of Blawnox, Pa., owner and breeder of Crown Prince, who has an outstanding reputation both as a photographer and as a breeder.
National Cat Week will be celebrated from November 2 to 9, 1952. The Seals are now available for distribution and may be secured from National Cat Week Headquarters,
1201 Center St., Pittsburgh, Pa. One Hundred Seals and a pamphlet on cat care are sent for
$1.00
Cable's Crown Prince
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Sweep for
Chindwin's Singumin of Newton at Norfolk
November 1952- Just in time for this issue came the news that Mrs. Virginia Cobb's Champion Seal Point Chindwin's Singumin of Newton gained a sensational double
victory at the Norfolk Cat Fanciers Show by being Best Cat in both the All Breed under Mrs Mabie and in the National Siamese Specialty under Judge
Kay Thoma. This is one of the very few times in show history that a Siamese has made such a double win, and by doing so. "Singumin" earned the final points for her Grand Championship. This is Mrs. Cobb's second Siamese Grand
Champion, her first having been her famous Newton's Jay Tee.
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