Amazoloucats

Welcome to our website and I hope you enjoy your journey through our wonderful cats.

To give you some background; I have always been owned by a cat or two when growing up and it was a
natural step to obtain a couple of furry friends when I finally bought a home of my own. These furry
guys were Bilbo & Timon (see British boys). When I met up with Norman a couple of years later I soon
realised that he too was very much into the cats and enjoyed having a multi cat household. After
moving house twice to a much larger detached in 1999 I decided it was time to take the cats seriously
and see if I could go in to breeding and showing my own kittens. That's when the cats went from
minority to majority!!
We found a wonderful breeder and now a good friend Anne Edney of Rocadanne who entrusted to us our
first Maiden girls. Starting with just the British Shorthair and then over the last seven to eight years we
have acquired several wonderful Selkirk Rex cats that have complimented my British breeding
programme with our first Selkirk kittens having been born in 2005.

My love of the Selkirk Rex has overtaken my British Breeding programme and the Amazolou Cattery
became one of the founding members of the Selkirk Rex Cat Club in 2006 to aid in the progression of
the breed and it's championship status within the GCCF.

We have exported cats in the last 3 years and will consider the sale of kittens to overseas buyers.

Please note that we do not make any profit from kitten sales. Everything goes back into the pot towards
the several thousands of pounds it costs to keep these wonderful animals and support my hobby of
showing.
Please feel free to browse our site and see our wonderful boys and girls.
If you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact me direct:

Zoë L Amarilli
(+44) 0121-430-7137 email: zamarilli@aol.com or amazolou@googlemail.com

The Selkirk Rex

The Selkirk's nick name is the "sheep cat", though named after a breed of rabbit. The curly coat is a rarity that
they share with the little long-eared herbivore, and with their cousins from Devon and Cornwall, otherwise they
look quite different.

The Selkirk owes' their humble beginnings within a litter of ordinary kittens after a natural mutation. The
breeders thought that they looked so pretty they decided to establish the breed. The first ancestor, 'Miss Pesto',
was born in Wyoming USA,in 1987, of a common American Shorthair mother and unknown father. She was
adopted by Mrs Newman, a Montana breeder of Persian cats, and so moved up into high society! Her first
partner, a black Persian called 'Photo Finish', gave her three curly kittens, so the Selkirk is genetically
dominant, because just one Selkirk parent was enough to produce these curly little cats.

The Selkirk's have a robust, gracefully round body, lush curly fur and even curly whiskers and eyebrows. They
have a gentle nature and a loving temperament.
The Sell kirk has just become recognised by the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy thus launching their UK
show career. After several years of campaigning by dedicated breeders, the Selkirk Rex has now gained full
championship status with the GCCF in June 2009.

For more details of this wonderful new breed please visit the Selkirk dedicated website:
Selkirk Rex C at Club Web S ite

The British Shorthair

"We would do well to look to the gutters for our education," wrote Moncrif in
his History of cats in 1727. The nineteenth-century cat lover and painter
Harrison Weir must have agreed with him, as he hand picked cats from the
gutters of Great Britain to breed and show, thereby raising the common or
garden alley cat to the rank of "British Shorthair". This terribly colonialist
appellation was used at the time to refer to a variety of continental household
cats, and was the cause of much confusion, until specific breeding
programmes defined the precise standards for the British and European
Shorthairs, according to morphological differences.

Nowadays the British Shorthair still has a slightly rugged look which betrays
its common origins. It is a medium to large sized cat, with a sturdy muscular
body, broad shoulders, short robust legs, and a deep rounded chest. The tail is
thick at the base, and should be as long as two-thirds of the body. The head
must not be too short, and is round, like the muzzle. The eyes are also round,
and are orange, gold or copper-coloured: in case of the silver-coated cats, the
eyes should be green, and white cats can be odd-eyed.

The eyes are set quite wide apart, accentuating the width of the nose, and
there is a very slight stop between the nose and the well-defined forehead. The
very thick, short hair covering the forehead gives it a rounded look. The ears
are quite wide at the base, and quite small., with rounded tips. It's short, plush
fur makes this cat look round and fluffy - most inviting to touch! With it's
sweetly innocent, picture book face, it looks like a cuddly toy come to life.

Amazolou Cats