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TYPHA BOMBAYS AND ASIAN SELFS - HISTORY

by Rosie Alger-Street

Thought you might be interested to know why and how I got involved with Bombays and then Asian Selfs. The why is easy — because I love them. The how is slightly more complicated. However, if I am honest, I suppose it could be summed up in one word — pride!

I have always admired black cats from the day over twenty-five years ago when I saw a Foreign Black at a show. The sound patent leather coat looked really black and wet on this exhibit and it shone from head to foot. I wasn’t surprised to learn later that it got Best in Show.

A number of years later, Mrs. Margaret Somers, Chairman of The Burmese Cat Club, had some early Bombays on Exhibition at a show and I got talking to her about these "Black Burmese" which fascinated me. I told her about the Foreign Black that I had never forgotten and the gleaming wet looking solid coat, and how lovely if we could get this look on the Bombays.

I was even bold enough to mention a little theory I had on how this might be achieved. Margaret, not being one to mince her words, thought I was crazy and told me so in no uncertain terms! These days, knowing her much better, I would have laughed and stayed and discussed the point but in those days I was still easily intimidated by the idea of the Burmese Hierarchy, so mumbled something and ran!

This is where my pride came in! Having a stubborn streak and wanting an excuse to breed Bombays anyway, I decided I would try out my theory.

I kept it very quiet, working on the principle that if I was wrong, then lots of lovely pet cats would have been produced and no harm done. If I was right, then hopefully in the fullness of time I could contribute to the breed by offering a different line, thereby helping to widen the gene pool, and also produce a coat that I felt was synonymous with the breed. ! I was very fortunate in having a lovely cat orientated friend, Mary Morrison who was more than happy to help me out sharing with rearing the early generations in the home and finding loving owners.

Where to start! For those interested, my theory made sense to me, but probably to a geneticist it was totally nutty. However, not being a geneticist, I blindly went ahead. My theory worked on "paint - box colours"!

A brown Burmese is genetically black, but comes out brown because of the Burmese restriction gene. Remove the Burmese restriction gene and you have a black cat. The Burmese dilute of the dominant brown gene is recessive blue. Hence with the full expression genes, the dilute of black is blue. Any really black object has an almost blue sheen. You will see that an artist who is trying to portray a black object will shade with blue. So I went for a "full expression" blue cat to get my black Bombay line with a sound coat, thereby hopefully eliminating the brown roots. It may sound crazy, but sometimes crazy theories work.

I finally found the right cat. A little blue girl called Chloe who needed a new home. Her background was unknown, but it was obvious that not both her parents where from the wrong side of the sheets and most cat people thought she was probably a half Russian Blue half something else.! She had a lovely short, sound, full expression blue coat, good type, a delightful temperament and fitted the bill admirably. She arrived pregnant, and when I saw the results of her clandestine mating it confirmed my hopes. In 1989 I mated her to my blue Burmese stud Ch Typha Plush Velvat to consolidate the "blue", therefore hopefully "setting" the coat. (By this time any geneticist reading this has probably crawled into a hole or gone grey!!) She had two kittens and I kept the full expression girl Typha Velvatina Salix, known as Willow. These she had to have by caesarean section, so I didn’t breed from her again and she lived out the rest of her life very happily with Mary.

We now have a "shiny black" very typy Bombay boy at stud "Typha Black Pantha" (coat absolutely solid to the roots), whom we love dearly. For the record, he doesn’t carry blue! Sadly Chloe died in February 1999 (probably over 16 years old) and was buried in the garden next to our Scottie dog Muffin who we lost in the previous November. A red rose is planted on the rockery, which we can see from the house. We shall not forget her.

Once again, thank you Margaret, we would never have had any of them without you. Thanks also for all the support I have had from the Asian Group Cat Society Committee and other Bombay breeders; in fact everyone involved with this lovely breed of cat. Without all your enthusiastic help I would never have been able to legalise our lines and become part of this exciting venture in the Cat Fancy.

A final note to all you geneticists out there — sorry!!