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Throughout all my life I have had a series of pet domestic cats, which accompanied me
from city to city, from student digs, to flats to rented houses. In 1975 I bought my
first Burmese, joined the RASCC and embarked on my breeding career. When the idea for
the Spotted Mist, Australia's own home grown breed was born, I quickly realised that
space and time were both necessary for the endeavour. At the end of 1977 I struck out
on my own, moving to a small bush acreage outside Sydney at South Maroota, taking up
Ecological Consulting, and some part time work at Hawkesbury Agricultural College in
Biological Sciences, and later in Horticulture.
The Spotted Mist ( later Australian Mist) was recognised for Championship status in 1986. I was also involved in breeding Abyssinians, particularly Silvers ( in conjunction with John and Cheryl Straede), Siamese, Balinese, and Burmese until the mid 90’s. I have written articles on aspects of genetics, health and management from my very early days in the Cat Fancy, publishing these first in the Burmese Society's journal, 27's, later regularly contributing to the RASCC Journal, and later still to national cat newspapers and journals. The culmination of this was the production of ‘Breeding Cats ... a Practical Guide’, in 1997, with a continuation produced in 2000. In August 1993 I became the editor of the RASCC Journal, a position I held for 5 years. In 1993 I attended the first Urban Animal Management Conference, and began to develop an interest in the public policy / private ownership interface as it affected cats, cat owners - and cat breeders. In the following year I successfully stood for a position on the Consultative Committee of the RASCC. I represented the NSWCFA ( formerly the RAS Cat Control) on a number of Government Committees and in 1995 I received a personal invitation to join the advisory committee to the Animal Welfare Advisory Council on the proposed upgrade of the Animal Trades Regulations under the (NSW) Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. At the end of 1995 I was selected by the Minister for Local Government to form part of a Working Party on proposed Companion Animal Legislation for New South Wales. When the legislation was passed, I was invited to be a member of the Companion Animals Advisory Board , a position I held until I moved interstate. In 1997 I was invited to train as a Companion cat judge, an experience which I much enjoyed, and which gave me the confidence to apply to train as a Group 3 Judge in 1998. The training course added much to my pleasure in and understanding of cats in general, and gave me new insights into my own breed. I became fully qualified in 2002, after having had major changes in my life through 2000 to 2002, including an interstate move, with a new cattery and a new garden. I remain a very active breeder, exhibitor and publicist of Australian Mist and have recently commenced breeding Maine Coon. I can be contacted as follows: Evergreen, 15 South Bank Road, BUNYIP 3815 Phone: (03)5629 6211.
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