Because
of our dedication to the breeding for health program we have, over the
years, introduced many cats to our lines. We feel these invaluable
contributors deserve their very own page! When we started our breeding
program we knew it would mean years of hard work and expense, but felt
confident that the cause was very worthwhile. We have worked totally together
with Melanie Odey of Yedolem Cattery to make this all possible.
Our
goals are to continue to expand Devon Rex lines that are bred 'safe' from
spasticity and pseudohaemophilia, and also to avoid – if possible – introducing
other genetic problems known to be carried in other breeds. The results:
healthy robust Devon Rex cats that will live long lives with their families.
We can, with a clear conscience, send these cats to their loving homes
knowing that we have done everything possible to ensure their ongoing good
health.
All
of our programme plans for outcrossing have received approvals from the
NZCF National Genetics Committee, and we wish to acknowledge and thank
them for their regular encouragement and kind support. We have
followed the requirements of the NZCF Genetics Committee from the outset
in placing ourselves as new breeders for a period of three years under
the supervision of Ginny Rastall and her late partner Wayne Rastall, of
Enneads Cattery, who have kindly guided us and also provided support,
during that period and continue to do so. The outcross matings have permission
to continue to continue until 2011. Devon Rex breeders who are interested
in acknowledging genetic issues and addressing them openly and honestly
have a long and often lonely road to travel. Below is a very brief
summary of ten years hard work, both rewarding, and, at times, heart breaking.
Enneads
Rickhoon gen 3
We started with our delightful cat bred by Ginny and Wayne Rastall.
Fibblewitz
Periwinkle Devon Rex Variant,gen
1
Periwinkle
then joined our household, our foundation queen a Blue Silver Ticked
Torbie Bicolour Abyssinian Devon Rex (Gen 1) outcross. Ricky and Periwinkle
had several litters, and he fathered an outcross litter before he was sadly
killed by our new boxer dog as a young cat.
Enneads
Andi Cola Devon Rex Variant gen 1
Thankfully
Enneads Andi Cola, a Chocolate Smoke Tonkinese Devon Rex (Gen 1) Variant,
Ricky's son and an outcross to a healthy lilac oriental was still entire,
to help continue his line.
Andi
Cola produced kittens with amazing natures, however several of his litters
produced kittens with heart abnormalities, so in the interest of improving
the health of the breed we sadly stopped using Andi or his progeny.
Praqbhassara Thisall Do Me
Reuben (Prabhassara Thisall Do Me) Reuben is virtually our lines equivilent
to Kirlee, he is the foundation sire for our New Zealand line. Although
not a typey cat himself, he sired some very typey kittens, including Enneads
Pinkle a gen 3 boy., not at all photgenic, anf very dirty, as in a cat
who rolled in dirt, I often wonder if it was nature helping him to prevent
sun damage, being a cream cat?
We mated Pinkle to our Periwinkle
Fibblewitz
Periwinkle gen 1 and Enneads Pinkle gen 3
Periwinkle
and Pinkle produced Wisecracks Demanda Devon a Blue silver Torbie Bicolour
gen
2 . No prizes for guessing why she received that name, last
in a litter of all Variant kittens. Demanda is a delightful cat and
adores kittens, anyone’s kittens.
Wisecracks
Demanda Devon gen 2 and Wisecracks Harley Henderson
gen
0
Luckily Pinkle was also mated to Elle Macfurrperson, an Exotic x Domestic girl
Enneads
Elle Macfurperson (Gen 0) and Enneads Pinkle (gen 3)
Elle
had a glorious litter of devon Rex Variants,, and from this litter Enneads
Inca Hootz was chosen to continue a line for breeding. She has contributed
a lovely short foreface,good nose break, and beautiful coat to the lines.
Enneads
Inca Hootz gen 1 and Enneads Hocus Pocus gen
3
Inca
very kindly produced Bing Crossbreed when she was mated to Enneads Hocus
Pocus.
Enneads Inca Hootz gen 1 and Enneads Bing Crossbreed gen 2
Bing
Crossbreed was mated back to his mother and we kept Wisecracks Marvin Graye.
Wisecracks
Marvin Graye gen 2 and Eva Purron gen 3
Marvin
and Eva produced a lovely litter, including Yedolem Argie and Vita
Yedolem Vita gen 3 and Yedolem Argie gen 3
We have
great plans for Vita and Argie.
Wisecracks Marvin Graye gen 2 and Fibblewitz Arabella gen 4
Wisecracks Ba Zooka gen 3
Wisecracks
Marvin Graye has also kindly mated Arabella and we have kept Wisecracks
Ba Zooka aka The Cauliflower.
Witzend Eva Purron gen 3 and Witzend Doc Marten gen 0
Snooker had added to our breeding program, his kittens are so affectionate, and delightful to live with.
Fibblewitz Arabella gen 4 and Yedolem What's The Point gen 1
Snooker
and Arabella are the parents of Oscar.
Wisecracks Oscar gen 2
Witzend
Eva Purron gen 3 and Yedolem What's The Point
gen
1
Yedolem
I Spiedher gen 2
Yedolem Spider Monkey gen 2 and Wisecracks Oscar gen 2
Yedolem Gretel a gen 3
Monica
and Oscar have produced the stunning Gretel.
Wisecracks
Oscar gen 2 and Wisecracks Domestic Bliss gen
0
Snooker's son Oscar has also been busyy and has produced our lovely Jezebel from a mating to a cat called Wisecracks Domestic Bliss.
Wisecracks
Painted Jezebel
Yedolem Turbo Tiga gen 0
Last
Year 2006, Eva and her daughter Monica both went to a handsome Domestic
boy,
Yedolem Thor Nado gen 1 Yedolem Nadia gen 1 and Yedolem Zefurr gen 1
These
beautiful Devon Rex Variants will continue to add fresh health and vigor
to our lines.
Australian Import,
Lagrange Fade To Blackaka Ripply
While
working hard with our breeding programme, we were also making world wide
inquiries about who was test mating Devons. Sadly because of the
great amount of time, expense and hard work involved in testmating for
spasticity, we found virtually no one from whom to import a breeding cat.
Importing would be so much easier than having to continue outcrossing and
backcrossing. Each introduction of a new cat, means we could be introducing
NEW problems to the breed. We therefore always backcross closely
to see if this close mating produces any problems, by allowing any recessive
genes a greater chance of being expressed. We found one breeder in Australia
who had done test matings and had a cat almost entirely test mated safe.
Margaret Welsh of New South Wales has been committed to testmating programme
since she produced a spastic litter many years ago, and personally understands
the heartbreak involved in these recessive genes appearing unexpectantly.
From Margaret Melanie purchased and imported Lagrange Fade To Black,
and we are grateful to Margaret for this opportunity. Ginny has scoured
his ancestry and agrees with Margaret’s statements that his dam, Lizzie,
was testmated safe, and his father, Jimbo, although not testmated safe,
has not been known to have produced spastic kittens throughout his breeding
career. Being only almost test mated safe, meant that we were
not prepared to compromise the 20 years of hard work behind our safe lines
from Ginny and Wayne, by introducing him directly into our N.Z. lines.
We have actually outcrossed Lagrange Fade To Black (Gen 3), known more
commonly as Ripply, to carefully chosen queens and intend to backcross
their progeny back to Ripply, again to give us every chance of finding
any carried genetic traits we do not want to introduce to our lines. Ripply
has been busy, but sadly for us many of his outcross litters have ended
in dead ends, through his tendency to produce males when we actually need
females, stop it, Ripply!!.
Lagrange Fade To Blackgen 3 and Wisecracks Willo The
Wisp gen 0
Willo and Ripply produced 6 male kittens, so much for keeping a girl to test mate back to Ripply! We kkept a boy, just in case and were pleased we did, as Willo had an emergency spey with her next pregnancy, so no more kittens. So it came to be that Wisecracks Wilhe Do gen 1 Devon Rex Variant, (again no prizes for guessing the motivation behind that name) joined our program.
Ripply then sired a litter to Yedolem Rasta.
Lagrange Fade To Black gen 3and Yedolem Rasta gen
0
From
this mating we kept a very handsome boy, Yedolem Rastaman
Domestic
Male gen o and Wisecracks In A Pickel gen 2
From
this mating we kept Wisecracks Possum
Yedolem Rastaman gen1 and Wisecracks Possum gen 1
Rastaman
and Possum after much time and effort produced a lovely litter, three variants
and one devon. The devon girl we kept , the vocal, passionate Wisecracks
Kaya
Wisecracks Kaya gen 2
Wisecracks
Wilhe Do gen 1 and Wisecracks Squeek A Boo
gen 0
To make use of the beautiful Wilhe Do we mated him to a very healthy lovely natured Domestic who we registered as Wisecracks Squeek A Boo (Gen 0). Squeek had five kittens. We kept the two females, Wisecracks Yesa Do and Wisecracks Shiza Booma, both (Gen 1) Devon Rex Variants. These two girls grew up very loved and eventually went to visit Ripply and both came back in kitten. Sadly Yesa Do, had five kittens only partly formed, and one very healthy fully formed little boy. We kept 2 girls from Booma, Wisecracks Polly Ester and Wisecracks Val Crow
Lagrange
Fade To Black gen 3and Wisecracks Shiza Booma gen
1
Shiza
Booma delivered 6 beautiful kittens and we kept Wisecracks Polly Ester
and Wisecracks Val Crow.. Although Polly has produced several glorious
litters, she is very passionate and very intense, and after much discussion
we have decided only to move foreward with Val Crow kittens.
Wisecracks Val Crow gen 2
We also
put Wisecracks Wilhe do to Periwinkle
Wisecracks Wilhe Do gen 1 and Fibblewitz Periwinkle
gen
1
From
this mating we kept Wisecracks In A Pickel. Pickel's managed to escape
and had three kittens
Lagrange
Fade To Black gen 3 and Yedolem Sweetie gen
0
Lagranga Fade To Black gen 3 and Yedolem
Tinkerbell gen 0
From
Yedolem Sweetie's litter we kept a very handsome variant boy, Yedolem Lester,
and from Tinkerbell's litter produced Yedolem Wendy.
Yedolem
Lester gen 1 and Yedolem Wendy gen 1
From
these two cats we are produced our passionate Yedolem Rip Van Crinkle
Yedolem
Rip Van Crinkle gen 2 and Wisecracks Val Crow
gen 2
These
two cats have produced a lovely gen 3 girl, Wisecracks Staye Plurr, who
will be mated to Ripply, to continue cour test mating
Wisecracks Staye Plurr gen 3
Staye
Plurr we hope will go to Ripplyand produce a full register boy for us,
so Ripply can retire!
Ripply’s
outcrossing programme has kept us very busy over these past few years,
but now that we have got past Ripply’s initial block on producing female
kittens, we are progressing well with Yedolem's Rip Van Crinkle a male
and three Gen 2 Devon Rex females to mate back to Ripply. Wisecracks
Polly Ester, Wisecracks Val Crow, Wisecracks Kaya. The goal of achieving
15-20 plus kittens per each breeding queen will enable us to introduce
these safe queens and their progeny into our New Zealand lines which we
have continued to expand in readiness. By this time, we hope that other
Devon Rex breeders will have seen the value in testmating their lines.
Many of our (Gen 2) cats could hold their own against cats from such breeding
lines, but with the added benefit of outcross vigour. We are continuing
to keep ourselves open to the possibility that some other breeders internationally
may realize the value of producing breeding lines tested safe from these
recessive genetic faults, and we will look forward to their contact.
What matters in the long run is that we are clear about our goals and our
standards for the health and temperament in our Devon Rex cats.
The
above foundation cats are lauded for their contributions to our breeding
for health and temperament programme goals, and we wish them well with
their human families in their future. We have asked each human family
to keep in regular contact with us, as we are keen to continue to record
lifetime health progress for these wonderful cats. Many thanks to
the kind human families who have taken our much loved kittens and adult
cats into their homes for lifetime cherishing.
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