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I have always had cats as pets and in 1996, my tortie 'moggy' died at the grand old age of 21. Later, I decided that I would like to have a pedigree BSH Tortie so in December 1997, on a grey miserable day, Dave and I travelled up to York to look at (and fall in love with) my first British and the 'start of it all' , Daisy (Kaleidoscope Pepperpot). She was so full of fun and produced many lovely kittens. Sadly, Daisy passed away in April 2009, but her legacy lives on in Bluebelle, Effie, and the gorgeous Hecate. Daisy is so sorely missed, she was so bright and cheerful and a perfect 'role model' for looking after kittens. Up to shortly before we lost her, she would still give Bluebelle (out of her first litter) a quick wash and brush up!

Above is shown HINDERSLYNE BLUEBELLE, a lovely blue-cream that I kept from Daisy's first litter to UK Gr Ch Miletree Owain Glyndwr, and HINDERSLYNE DOUBLE EFFIE (Hinderslyne Lucy LollipopX Gr Ch Jococa Banana Split), Daisy's great grand daughter and mother of CH HINDERSLYNE HECATE. Bluebelle was born in 1999 and she too had many lovely kittens before being neutered. Effie was born in 2007 and had one litter to my gorgeous boy CH & GR PR HINDERSLYNE BLACK HEMLOCK, Effie decided that motherhood was really not for her and although she looked after her kittens dutifully, she was glad when it was all over!

Purrly, (SCORPIO LEOPARDSONG) is a brown spotted Bengal, she was born in 1997 and is a much loved pet. She has a sweet nature, and loves to 'fiddle about'. She is pictured on the balcony of Hinderslyne Manor. She is very noisy when kittens are around, but she is 'all talk'.

The probable direct ancestor of the cat evolved about 23 million years ago and was a small (present day cat-sized) mammal. The present day cat Family evolved about 12 thousand years ago, with three genera (groups). The smallest Genus is Acinonyx of which only the Cheetah survives. The next Genus is Panthera, which includes all the 'big cats' such as lion, tiger and leopard. The Genus with the largest number of species is Felis, which has about 40 species of small wild cats, and the domestic cat.
Our fireside cat was domesticated about 4 thousand years ago, which, in evolutionary terms is only a short while, compared to dogs and horses which have been domesticated for well over 10 thousand years.
The British Shorthair breed originated in the early 1900's through mating an 'alley cat' with a pedigree Persian. The lush thick coat, cobby body,round eyes and loving temperament are charactertistic of the breed

Jenny Hemming 25 April 2009