Name: Lea Pawley
Location: High Wycombe, Bucks
Breed(s): Burmillas & Burmese
Breeding since: 1998
Breeze and Summer BIS pictures by
Bob Fox, others courtesy of Lea Pawley.
 Tell us a bit about you:
I've lived in High Wycombe for most of my life - I'm married to Jon
and have 4 children, 6 cats, 1 rabbit and 2 dogs! My non-cat
hobbies are reading - spooky books (especially Stephen King) and books
on forensic anthropology - travelling to other countries and
gardening.
Why did you choose your breed(s)?
My husband wanted to move to a new house and I said I would only do so
if I could have a pedigree cat. The hunt was then on to find the
breed that appealed to me, and this came accidentally from looking at
the 'My Cat' magazine - it just happened the week I bought a copy they
were doing a breed profile on Burmillas and I fell in love. It
took quite a bit of searching before I found Lyn McCuckian, since then
(as now) it's a sad but true fact that not many people breed them.
She had a wonderful kitten available and I fell in love with the cat
that is now GIP Summer of Lakota (pictured left, enjoying a lie-in
with me, and below right winning Best In Show at Bognor).
 Some
of you may remember Summer from the old CA (Cat Assocation) days as
she won everything in sight, including a number of 'Best in Shows'!
I can never thank Lyn McCuckian enough for letting me have her - in
fact I found it hard to believe that I could be so lucky as to have
found Summer, I was a complete novice to showing and it was quite a
roller coaster ride for me!
Why/how did you start breeding?
Summer is so special that it was felt it would be a shame not to breed
from her, so I agreed to give it a go. Actually, it's surprising
that I'm still breeding now as that first litter was an absolute
disaster and could easily have scared me off for life! Out of 11
kittens only 4 survived and we kept one, Artemis. Summer was
unwell for a long time after the birth and we could not risk anything
happening to her so we did the best thing for her we could and had her
spayed. It certainly worked out fine because it was after that
she went on to win several Best In Shows at CA.
 Why did you choose your prefix?
Another of my interests is History, and at the time I was into Ancient
Greece!
When were your most memorable occasions as a breeder?
Both good and bad memories were when Summer had her first and only
litter. However, her line has continued in her daughter IC
Athenais Artemis
and granddaughter Athenais Harmonia (pictured below right, having fun at
Christmas). Unfortunately Harmony didn't take when put to
stud despite several attempts, so I also now have my lovely baby Burmese
Breeze
(pictured left) - she is going to go to Harmonia's brother when
she's ready so I can still hold on to my line, albeit in a slightly
different way!
Then there was Artemis' last litter - she had 9 kittens and raised
them all with no help needed from me! Artemis is known as Fizz
because she spent most of her kittenhood with her fur standing up!
 Who
were/are the most memorable cats you've had?
Summer, of course! She is now almost 11 years old and as
beautiful as ever!
What are your hopes for the future of your breed/your breeding
programme?
To carry on breeding so that everyone gets a chance to love a
Burmilla.
Lea Pawley
April 2007 |
