It was the evening of the 17 Febuary 1988, and into the room came our top
burmese cat, Ch. Rafoej Xustous, "Mishah" to us. She was friendly to the other
cats, not her usual self at all. She jumped up on to my lap and to my surprise,
I thought I felt a contraction! I thought I must be imagining it, but sure
enough a little while later, I felt another one. You can imagine the panic
to get a box ready for her. In due course one kitten was born, a jet black
female, and we didn't even know she was pregnant.
It was later that I remembered an incident a couple of months before.
It was first thing in the morning, and I happened to look out of the window,
and to my horror, there was "Mishah " rolling around or) the grass, with her
daughter and a black Tom watching! I rushed out and got her back inside safely,
thinking I was pretty lucky to have spotted her in time. I was a bit green
in those days. I went out and patted the Tom, and said I was sorry, little
knowing that he had already done it!
He was a very handsome young male, black, with golden eyes. I never saw him
around again, so maybe his owners got him neutered soon after.
I gave Mishah a pill and told her to get back to looking after her I I kittens,
then about I I weeks. old. She was actually a marvellous mother and breeder.
This was her second litter. Her first litter she had was big too, 10 altogether,
so I was used to seeing her an enormous size during the latter part of her
pregnancy.
Zanyminx Ebony, 'Ebby' grew up to be very attractive with her black coat and
deep golden eyes, I had been reading how they started the Bombay in America,
by crossing a burmese with a black shorthair, and thought, how about breeding
a black burmese. We registered Ebby as a ( 26 ) AOV, and later, when she was
ready, mated her to a seal burmese, carrying blue.
On the 9 October 1989 Ebby gave birth to 5 healthy kittens. There were 3 seal
males and 2 black females. Both females were very nice, and it was hard to
choose one to keep for breeding. The one I finally chose didn't have such
a short coat as her sister, but had better type, and super personality. We
named her Zanyminx Black Pearl, and registered her as a black burmese, ( 27z
) Gen-2.
It was encouraging to have people admire the black ones when they came to see my burmese kittens, and I was sure they would become popular once they were known about. That was the main reason I entered Pearl in shows, with quite a bit of success, including a 4th. BIS at the Burmese Show, which was really encouraging, and she got her champion status, No other breeders seemed interested in my breeding programme at this stage,and I was used to overhearing remarks as "just rubbish", "not pure", "a hybrid" etc.
In June 1990,Mandalay ( 37 ) was accepted as a separate breed by the NZCF
Inc. This was the name submitted by Pat Hogan and Dorothy Horton, who also
started a similar breeding programme before me, but with red colours. Pearl
and her sister was renamed an Ebony Mandalay ( 37 )
Pearl had her first litter, sired by a seal burmese carrying blue and chocolate,
on the 5 Febuary 92. She had 9 beautiful kittens, 2 ( 27 ) males, 5 ( 27 )
females, 1 ( 37 ) male and 1 ( 37 ) female. It didn't look as if Pearl carried
colours, Unfortunately the ebony female had a kink in her tail, so she was
no good to keep for breeding purposes. The ( 37 ) male looked very promising,
with a lovely short coat and good tail.
He subsequently became and continues to be, our stud cat, named Ch. Zanyminx
Midnight Special ( Gen-3 ).
"Midi"
sired his first kittens at a week under 6 months of age, In the kitchen !
He was still an inside pet, but not for much longer Ch. Zanyminx Pandorea,
a seal burmese,daughter of Mishah gave birth to 3 kittens on the 2 November
92, 1 ( 37 ) male, 1 ( 37 ) female, and I ( 37A ) female, our first blue mandalay.
These were our first mandalays to go on the full register, generation 4.
I kept the ( 37 ) female, and her name Is Ch. Zanyminx Black Jubilation, "Jubi"
for short.
Midi did very well in his short show career, ( unfortunetly he lost an eye
in an accident ), receiving a 7th. BIS, 3rd. type, and BAM in his first kitten
show. As an adult he got a 7th and 8th. BIS, and became a champion.
Ch.Rafoej Almira, a seat burmese carrying chocolate,was the first outside
queen to visit Midi.
She had 9 healthy kittens bom on 12 March 93. The colours were seal burmese,
ebony mandalay, and I chocolate mandalay.
This was the first ( 37b ) sired by Midi, and I was really thrilled that he
carried chocolate as well as blue. The female ( 37b ) was named Rafoej Mnemosyne
Minx, and I bought her back to use as a breeding queen. She's now a champion,
and has had many kittens. Her ebony sister was kept by the breeder, Rod Hitchmough,
and has done very well at shows. Her name is Gr.Ch.Rafoej Midnight Caller.
On the 30 December 93 Carol Gray ( Atacat ) had the birth of her first mandalay
kittens, the result of a mating between her seal burmese queen, Dbl. Gr. Ch.
Rafoej Lysistrata. and Ch. Zanyminx Midnight Special.
There were 2 seal burmese, I chocolate. burmese, and 2 chocolate mandalays.
Carol was thrilled with the kittens, and keen to breed more. My daughter bought
one of the ( 37B ) males, named Atacat Quay-Wee Mynx and he turned out to
be a beautiful big boy, and much loved. He has been shown, with a number of
top ten results, and is now a premier.
Carol did a repeat rnating next time, and kept a lovely ebony male, named
Ch. Atacat Rasputin. He was a stud for a couple of years, and has sired some
lovely kittens
Mandalays have really become popular now, and there is always a waiting list
to buy kittens.
There are now many different colours available in the mandalays, but the ebony
is still one of the most popular, with their shiny black coat and deep gold
eyes, and of course that lovely burmese temperament.
I would like to thank the catteries that have taken the interest to breed
mandalays, by bringing their queens to visit Midi, partically Rafoej, Atacat,
Llantillio, Purrpaws, ( who bred the first lavender ( 37C ), and Deslainee
Catteries.
Jan Parsons
Zanyminx Cattery
Phone/Fax ( 09 ) 445 7037
September 1997