We could not believe our luck when we produced Kamora, the 2nd Oriental Classic Tabby we had ever bred, then when we discovered she was most definitely a female we were over the moon. There was no way on earth this little girl would be going anywhere and naturally she had to join our own cat family. Even though she is still a baby herself out this time, her life has already been mapped out for her because Kamora will play an integral role in our Classic Tabby breeding program.

For any novice Tabby breeder, the pattern is the most difficult thing in the world to get right and we are delighted to say that as Kamora is maturing, her own pattern is yet one step up from her sire's which means that we are going in the right direction and not going backwards. Kamora has an interesting pedigree in that she is the product of a mother/son mating. Even though that mating was an "accident" at the time, it was one we had always planned on doing to gauge both the health, and the strength of the pattern in the line. This is where it is very interesting because that mating proved to us just how strong this line is with regards to health. Prior to this mating, Kamora's mum, Sambuca, had previous litters and whilst we have had some lovely babies from her, she struggled with large litters, and whenever she had Siamese babies in the litters, there was always a problem and we have lost Siamese babies from Sami in the past. In Kamora's litter, not only did we end up with 6 very strong, healthy babies, but 2 of them were Siamese babies, who, unlike previous babies from Sambuca, thrived right from the start. This tells us a great deal about the health of those lines because with inbreeding, yes you double up on the good points, but you also double up on the bad points so any health issues would have been twice as bad as had this been an outcross mating. The one downside to this type of mating however is that Kamora must go to outcross boys for her own matings she can never go back to her father. But that isn't the end of the world.

As for Kamora herself, when she is a darling, she is so typical of being her father's daughter in that she is very loving, yet extremely cheeky and mischievous. These are traits that are "stamped" on all the Tabby children that Ashanti sires. If you are a regular reader of our web site, you will already know that each of our cats is named after a Liqueur and yes, we are fast running out of Liqueur names now so Kamora may well be the last baby we keep back for a very long time, unless of course Ashanti manages to give us a Blue Spotted girl in which case chances are Graham will want her. Kamora is a coffee liqueur produced in Mexico, one which we have not had the pleasure of tasting but I'm sure we will at some stage. We absolute adore Kamora and just like the rest of our cat family, she is being spoilt rotten.

When Kamora was born, we felt honoured to have shared her progress with our mates, Teen and Tone of Maroochydore Siamese & Orientals. I know that Teen was just as excited as I was when Kamora showed signs of being a Classic and throughout Kamora's first 13 weeks, Teen has let me go on and on about her on the phone. Teen and Tone also came to visit us to see her for themselves and friends like that are one in a million. This aside, Teen has been a tremendous help to me with regards to the Tabby pattern and it's so wonderful to have someone else to talk with for hours on end about things like patterns/colours which would bore most people :)

We are interested to see how she matures in both personality and pattern as time goes by so watch this space..............