British Blues can be a little shy and wary of strangers when they go to their new home. It is very important to gain their trust, for them to feel secure. Very often they will prefer sitting beside you or sitting on the top of the armchair or sofa, behind your head to sitting on your lap. Once you have gained the trust and confidence of your British Blue, you will have a marvellous companion – I would find it very hard to be without a Blue in my home – they are wonderful cats.

The picture at the heading of "British Shorthairs" is Rusjayne Shady Lady. The picture was taken in 1983 by Anne Cumbers. Jayne was born  in July 1979 and died on the 20^th September 1993 at fourteen.

 She was my foundation queen, a devoted mother to her kittens and a marvellous companion to us. We mated her to several studs at the time, specialising in blues, but her most successful mating was to Champion Patrystar Herc's Boy who belonged to Pat Brice. He was a very handsome cat who had a marvellous nature and enjoyed being cuddled (unusual for a blue !)

I only have a very old picture of him from a magazine and the page had been folded in my pedigree file, below him is his father, Grand Champion Shadingfield Hercules.

On the 23^rd April 1983, a sunny Saturday, Brian and I went shopping to Canterbury. When we returned home there was obviously something wrong, we investigated and found Jayne had given birth to kittens " nine days prematurely !

One kitten was alive  we called the vet and he pronounced the kitten, who was just under two ounces in weight, fine, her lungs were fully formed and he felt she was viable. He advised a formula for feeding (Jayne had no milk) and we began the routine of hand-rearing. Jayne was wonderful though, she welcomed Demelza in her bed, topped and tailed her etc. and was a superb mother as usual, apart from the ability to feed her at first. I used to make up a double feed at midnight and place the bottle for the 3am feed on the hot water tank in the airing cupboard, setting the alarm to wake me up. On the Tuesday at 3 in the morning, I was fumbling around, making sure the teat of the bottle was on top of Demelza’s tongue, half asleep, when she just latched on and suckled like mad – she was really hungry !! I knew then that we had won ! At nine days Jayne's milk came through (she had been on calcium tablets) and Demelza was soon a happy, healthy, normal kitten.

Here she is as a baby photographed by Anne Cumbers. Demelza had the most wonderful eyes. When she was young, they were like barley sugars ! We mated her to a number of studs and in 1988 decided to try a cream, Westways Crimebuster. From this mating we kept Beaumaris Bluecream Babe. She, in turn, had some beautiful creams when mated to Grand Champion Hunmar Shunting Along.

Beaumaris Demelza when she was 16 years old. Her eyes were always a fabulous colour and did not fade. She died at 18. Her mother was Rusjayne Shady Lady (16) and her father the gorgeous Ch. Patrystar Hercs Boy (16).

In 2000, a friend had a litter of blues from the well-known Grand Champion Burlington Berti and Kernmere Victoriana, an attractive female with an impeccable blue pedigree going back to Champion Patrystar Herc’s Boy. I was lucky enough to have Mianja Rhapsodyinblue and could embark on planning some British Blue kittens once again. “Buboo"” was quite a madam when it came time to go to stud but Champion Icemoor Toranaga persuaded her it would be fun!

Here are the babies, 2 males and a little female, Beaumaris Burberry Baby sitting up in the background. It wonderful to have British babies running around again and hopefully I can continue Beaumaris British Blue breeding with Burberry Babe in the future.

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