Hello, and welcome to Sanibel Cats. The point of this website is to tell you a little about ourselves, our cats and our feelings about them, cat breeding and cat showing.

The decision to show and breed cats was made at the end of a great family holiday in Florida, on beautiful Sanibel Island in the Gulf of Mexico, while sipping some delicious wine (another story!) in the balmy evening breeze on the cool white sand. We set about realising this ambition immediately on our return home to Dublin, Ireland (hence the name).

While we have had cats, both pedigree and 'ordinary' (although there is, of course, no such thing as an 'ordinary' cat) for many years, we decided, with the arrival of Coomakista Dark Angel (a Female Brown Burmese) in 1995, to both show and breed Burmese Cats. This decision has led us into the official cat world and it's attendant highs and lows. This has mostly been rewarding and good fun, but is always demanding in terms of time, resources and commitment. We are delighted that some of our kittens are now living happily with their loving owners in Sweden, Norway (both owners studying in Ireland at the time and who have now returned home), England, Northern Ireland and Ireland (and two are a little closer to home - right next door - the lovely Treacle and Scarfie).

Cat showing has also been good fun and some of our kittens are successfully making their way on the show bench, while Sable is now a Champion and going for her second Grand. We have recently added a lovely Oriental Lilac (Tenaj Littlefeather) to our cat household and we are truly delighted with her. Many thanks to her breeder, Janet Tonkinson, for this beautiful creature, and for taking the time and trouble to visit Dublin and bring Feather with her. We hope she, and her sister Jackie, enjoyed their visit and will come back again soon.

In general, the World of Cats has been a great interest for us. We have met some very nice (and, like all other walks of life, some not so nice) people and have made some great friends. As far as we are concerned, the cats are first, last and always the most important thing. While showing (and, of course, we all prefer to win) is great fun and a nice day out, it is not the end of the world if you don't win and, as long as the cats are well and happy, everything else is incidental. Sadly we have seen some people get so caught up in winning that their original love of cats becomes almost secondary to winning a top prize.

So, if you love cats, we hope you will enjoy our site and please feel free to contact us at contact@sanibelcats.com we would love to hear from you.

Tony and Alice Forshaw, 06/04/2001