The Landsker cattery comprises my three daughters, Justine, Madeleine, Ashleigh and myself Christine Hamilton. More importantly our Norwegian Forest Cat companions are Tippo, Hrokka,Lexi, Helena, Winnie and Ska - all of whom you can meet on our cats page.
We are based in the county of Pembrokeshire, South West Wales, UK, in a lovely little town called Narberth, which is depicted in the tapestry above. We have our own castle ruins and museum which, considering how small the town, is amazing. The tapestry was created by the Ladies of the Women's Institute and resides in the Queens Hall community building. Narberth has a thriving culture of arts and crafts and is situated on the Landsker fault-line, which used to separate the English pasturelands from the more hilly climbs that the Welsh were forced to inhabit. You can trace the fault-line by the string of Castles that are found along the current A40 road. There are many places with names of Norse origin to be found hereabouts, hence our feelings that Landsker was an appropriate prefix for our cattery. In some ways we have come back to our roots by moving here to Wales as my maternal Grandfather was a Sawyer in a Welsh mine and was born in the town of Mountain Ash. The countryside is very lush and beautiful. We have many wonderful beaches and the coastline is famous for it's walks and vistas.
My interest in the Norwegian Forest Cat started in 1997 when I bought our first queen Volsung Nutmeg (Meggie), who is the basis for our nfc we don't show much but hope to be doing more in 2009. We go to as many NFCC events as we can get to.
We enjoy some of the aspects of showing, like getting together with other friendly exhibitors and seeing other cats, which is a good way to see how different lines are being bred, but some people in the Cat Fancy can be extremely competitive and this is the part we keep away from, not because our cats can't hold their own but because we find it boring to be honest. Being in the Wilds of Wales means that it is usually two hours to the nearest show and three or four hours to the rest, sometimes more, so we will probably go to 2 shows a year including the club show. It's amazing to think of what we have learned in the last 12 years about the breed we have chosen and the best of it is that it's an ongoing situation, there is always something new to learn about breeding.
We also have a passion for pedigrees and have spent a lot of time tracing our own cats back to their roots so to speak. We now have a database and keep records of pedigrees that other breeders are kind enough to send us and they almost tell a story. We spend many happy hours line chasing as we call it and sometimes even get to see a picture of some of the old cats in the pedigrees, this is a great bonus!
We have had so much pleasure from the Forest Cats themselves and from the kittens they have had and would like to personally thank the breeder-friends that have helped us along the way. Even the nutters give you valuable lessons :-)
We have designed this website with a view to people getting to know us and our cats and not as a showcase to what we have or have not achieved. |
