About Singalto British Shorthairs

Who would have thought when my local operatic society decided to present Half A Sixpence that this would be the beginning of my love affair with British Shorthair Cats.  I certainly didn't!  My life was full to overflowing with two Flatcoated Retrievers, two very ancient pet Siamese, five grandsons, a budgerigar - and a long suffering husband.  

Sophie & Katy : sadly no longer with me

Add to all this, running my own training consultancy, plus chairman of the said operatic society, and there really wasn't very much room for anything else.  Or so I thought!

It was during rehearsals that I met Alan Edwards, who had been persuaded to play one of the principal roles in the show.  After chatting about our love of the theatre, I discovered he also shared my love of animals, and indeed was a show judge.  Photographs of our respective feline friends were produced, and for me it was love at first sight.  To my surprise I discovered the 'British Blue' was only one of the many available colours - and not the breed name.  One could also have Tabbies, Creams, Silvers, Reds and so on in these beautiful cats.  I managed to convince Alan that my house would be a perfect home for one of his kittens, and a Red Spotted female - Taliesin Sister Sarah (Rosie) duly joined our family.

Suki (18) : Rosie : Sixpence (17)

Should I 'show' Rosie?

It wasn't long before I started to ask questions about 'cat shows'.  I had shown my two Flatcoated Retrievers and had done reasonably well - until I had to give up due to being unable to 'charge round the ring' at a suitable pace.  Showing cats was obviously not going to be quite so energetic!  So when 'Rosie' was four months old, off we went to Guildford.  Two first placings and the die as cast.

Saturdays would never be quite the same again, no more 'laying in' for a start.  However, the friendly support and encouragement received from other British owners more than made up for any loss of sleep.  Since then we've had some very enjoyable and successful days out, in addition to meeting lots of new people.

It wasn't long before I started to think of the patter of tiny feet, so the next natural question was 'should Rosie be introduced to a mate?'  Again I was very fortunate to have Alan as a mentor as he introduced me to Celia Leighton and her beautiful Porteous boys.  What a fountain of knowledge they both have, and how lucky I was that they were willing to share this with an ignorant novice like me.  Porteous Clockwork Orange was chosen as Rosie's first husband.  This was the first time I'd seen a silver/red tabby and was overwhelmed by him.  Luckily so was Rosie, who went on to present five gorgeous kittens.

Choosing a 'breed name' was the next big step.  I wanted something that sounded good, was easy to remember and also related to 'me' and my interests.  'Singalto' seemed the perfect choice, because that's what I used to do - thereby combining my love of the theatre with my love of cats.