My name is Eija Siik and I live with my cats in southern Finland in a small town Hämeenlinna about 100 kilometers from our capital Helsinki. At daytime I work hard for the money in the office of a medicinefactory but in the evening and some nights I turn into a siamese enthusiast, just like many of my friends in the catworld. When you breed cats thereīs no limit what you can learn - from taking care of different cats with amazingly different personalities to secrets of heredity, kromozomes and genes. Planning interesting combinations, study pedigrees (I have a whole mapfull of pedigrees) and discussing about the practical issues with your friends is very time-consuming. I am the chairman of the biggest Finnish siamese- and oriental club Siam-Orient catclub and have been editor-in-chief of our clubmagazine.
So the cats live with me, but there wouldn't be any breeding possible here without my brother Jari - he's definitely lurking behind my prefix too. We discuss (and sometimes we discuss with "capital letters"…) and plan together the matings and together we watch over the birthgivings and kittens - there's so much that has to be taken care of! I think it's very important you have someone you can fully rely on these matters.
By the way Kelmikerhon is Finnish and means something like "the gang of little thieves". My first masked companion was very clever, specialising in stealing contents of the breadcabinet, but unfortunately nowadays itīs much harder to convict the guilty one when you have more suspects.
My very first siamese CH Fin*Apinanpalan Beatnik, bluepoint by the way, was born summer 91. We had visited cat shows and considered what breed would be the right one for us. When our old greystriped housecat died in the age of 18, we had already decided - in spite of all warnings in the catbooks - that siamese is the breed for us. We had also decided to take our little miss to at least a couple of catshows. In her first show she was chosen the best kathegory IV kitten - so we were hooked!
Breeding interested us from the beginning. We started looking for a suitable male for Beatnik even before her first call. We wanted him to be nicetempered (our Beatnik didn't like the shows as much as we do) with no common relatives with our female. We also wanted him to at least carry dilution. After some difficulties Beatnik was mated with EC Lilliput Miller H.L. who was imported from USA by Eeva Vuojolahti. The only daughter IC Kelmikerhon Aino A. stayed home as a piece of evidence that sometimes a kitten can heritage only the best parts of its parents.
Since then I have had one or two litters per year. Itīs in fact my goal to keep my breeding in a small scale. I want to raise all kittens "underfoot" and keep the amount of my cats in reasonable limits. So I suffer the common dilemma of trying to breed seriously with certain goals, not just "making babies", and keeping cats as familymembers. Not an easy task. But in co-operating with other breeders, who share same goals, you can take part in trying to keep the siamese the most beautiful catbreed in the world!
doesn't mean just putting your female together with a male
- itīs making your way towards your own dreamcat.
For inspiration (and for fun, too) I order siamese magazines from Finland and abroad. I'm a member in several foreign siamese associations and in both Finnish clubs. I haven't met my "perfect" siamese yet and it may be that I never do! But I have seen some cats that have made me weak - f.ex. sealpointed Säters Electra as a kitten years ago in a Swedish catshow. I value highest judges who breed or have been seriously breeding cathegory IV cats! There are so many judges you just don't know what they would like a siamese to be like - either nothing is enough or anything goes!
My dreamsiamese is slender, graceful and lively! I hope the ears to be as big and low set as possible. And the tail can not be too long or thin. Of course these all are only characteristics among charasteristics. Most important is the cat as a whole, a wellbalanced composition. I have combined american lines with best of scandinavian and english lines. My breeding queens are of very different types and so they need different things. I try to find a stud, that doesn't share same weaknesses with my queen. One problem too many of my kittens have: the fur is often too long or thick. Too much fur hides away the gracefullness siamese should have!
This is something I already have been working with and even seen some progress, too.
I breed siamese that have only siamese in their pedigrees. I regard Siamese as one breed not just a fancy name for coatpattern. It's allowed in Finland to use both oriental shorthairs and siamese mixed together in breeding. But I think that the genepoole can be enlarged also with wisely imported cats. Besides the whole idea of a breed is always to narrow down genetic variation. Otherwise we would have only housecats. I have even noticed that this mixing havenīt helped in this matter. In the past as these breeds were bred separately there were two matador males in Finland, one oriental shorthair and one siamese. Today there seems to be only one at the time…
I would prefer the CFA system where only classic pointcolours are considered as siamese but I have to be realistic and welcome reds and tabbies in the pedigrees of my cats as well. But this is my opinion - I donīt walk around in catshows pointing siamese with mixed pedigrees and making faces. I have friends who donīt share my opinions in this matter and I have loaned them my studs and sold my kittens. And I understand fully that it isnīt easier to breed beautiful siamese with mixed pedigrees than with "pure" lines. Still I see this mixing bit weird . The siamese is one of oldest catbreeds - It should have value of itīs own. I assume dogbreeders do not have this kind of discussion.
So I try to concentrate in one breed. Mainly blue and sealpoints - but just now we are breeding also tabbypoints. I have seen astonishingly beautiful orientals and balinese but it's much easier to follow the topcats and numerous interesting matings of the catworld if you put some limit to what you are looking for. Without specialisation it's almost impossible to even think of trying to improve things like pointcolour, contrast, eyecolour etc. Someone has said you have to build a house before painting it, but they who understand heredity of the multiple genes, know you have to keep all these things in mind all the time. But Iīve been compromising too. You just can't have everything at once.
with nice temperament and exellent breeding qualities - with no defects
Well I still try. After all there isn't such thing as a completely faultless cat. In Finland there are not so many breeding cats to choose from, but usually you know them, their faults and circumstances they live in. Breedingcats have to be healthy as mating and giving birth is always a health risk to them. It's fortunate that the knowlegde of hereditary illnesses increases all the time so we have better possibilities to fight against them! One thing I really don't want to be is hypocritical! It seems that faults other breeder's cats have are allways terrible defects. I can't say cats I use for breeding are quite faultless and still I take breeding seriously and always try to take care that cats I mate don't share same faults.
when you breed cats: Trying hard to find right people for your kittens.
All this breeding and planning is useless if you can't find nice homes for your kittens! I think this is the hardest part of all in breeding! There are some dissappointments (adult cats returned back home) but there are also cause for rejoicing: people who adore their Kelmikerhon siamese and are maybe willing to breed!
I have to thank all those people who have sold me a kitten or letting me lend their studs for my girls. Breeding cats is something you just can't do on your own. Just look at the pedigree of a siamese cat you like, no matter a pet or a show-star - so many people have been giving their time and effort with this splendid animal. Itīs a nice feeling when you can think of being one of them - even in some small corner.
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Eija