If you're a bit of a cat-o-phile, you will have poured over gorgeous pictures and descriptions in breed encyclopaedia and googled all sorts of exotic felines. Chances are you have a list of your possibly perfect kitties, right?

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We did. For years the books and pictures were enough to keep my daughter (relatively) content. Still, she talked, drew and dreamed cats until... the burning desire to be a cat lady eclipsed reason and gave birth to an idea for our family. She didn't just want to 'have' cats, she wanted to breed cats. Well, why not?  (And I answered all those "why not's" to my own satisfaction!) The 'real' search for our perfect cat began.

 

We knew we liked the colourpoint pattern and blue eyes. Since childhood Mum had an admiration for Siamese, but modern Siamese weren't quite it. We loved the look of Birmans, but still... not quite it. And Ragdolls... but they seemed to be in oversupply!

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Hmmm... temperaments. We wanted a bomb-proof cat, as close as we could find. Cats with great potential as healers for our autistic family: friends. Companions. Of course, every cat is an intuitive healer, but which breed to emphasise that quality and build upon it and reproduce it reliably?

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Snowshoe was on the shortlist. Also Japanese Bobtail, Abyssian, Burmilla.

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Finally though, which breed needed us? How excited were we to discover Snowshoes in Melbourne, just as we were due to visit family there. And doubly so to discover the future of Sno's in Australia needed new breeders. Bingo!