By Jay Lehman
Jay: What made you decide to get your first cat and what kind was it?
Donna: I grew up in a small town in Iowa and got a kitten from the farm where my mother went to buy eggs (barn cats were prolific!). My first cat was gray with white feet; I was probably about eight years old when I got him. I’m not sure why I loved cats, but I can’t remember NOT loving cats and I wanted one from the first time I ever petted one.Jay: When did you get your first pedigreed (show quality) cat and what breed was it?
Donna: In the fall of 1970, my husband (of a couple months) took me to a cat show in San Francisco and selected the Russian Blue as a potential addition to our household. A few months later, we purchased a pet male, which we neutered. By the following summer, we decided to get another cat to keep him company and bought a female Russian of "breeder" quality with the understanding that I could show her in a few of the local shows. After I had shown her several times with very modest success, her breeder suggested that I buy a better cat if I wanted to show a lot. I then purchased a male (Gr.Ch. Hy-line Dr. Zhivago of Tsar Blu) who eventually became the foundation of the TSAR BLU line of Russians. He was my first real show quality cat and earned a regional kitten award that first year (1973-74).Jay: When did you become involved in breeding and why?
Donna: The breeder-quality female that I purchased in 1971 was my first attempt at becoming a breeder. However, when I sent her back to her breeder for stud service, she came home with a lot of unpleasant additions such as fleas, URI, and pyometra [Note: I don’t know how to spell this and neither does my spellchecker]. All of her kittens were stillborn and she had to be spayed. By this time, I had been showing my male quite a bit and had met Diana Doernberg of Velva cattery. I made arrangements to breed another female I had acquired to one of Diana’s males and this produced my first litter of Russian Blue kittens -- but not until December of 1974. As to the why I got into breeding, I don’t really know – it just seemed the next natural step after I had been bitten by the "show bug".Jay: What breeds have you/do you breed, and why?
Donna: I have always bred Russian Blues – they are my first love and I can’t imagine life without a few of them around. Also, I have been quite successful with my Russian Blue breeding program and get a lot of satisfaction from my work with the breed.I also have bred Persians. I started in 1977 after a tactless exhibitor taunted me into it ("….you wouldn’t be making all your national wins if you had to groom a Persian…"). I found I really enjoyed grooming and showing Persians (although never a large number at any one time) – I felt more involved with the wins since I had done the grooming. I had Persians for about ten years and also bred some Exotics as part of my Persian program. Although I worked with other breeders on Burmese and Abyssinians, I would not consider myself a breeder of these breeds.
Jay: When did you become involved in CFA and why?
Donna: The first Russian Blue female that I acquired in 1971 was entered in two shows in early 1972: the first an ACFA show; the second a CFA show. I didn’t know the difference going in, but I was treated much kinder at the CFA show so stayed primarily with CFA shows from then on.Jay: What makes CFA stand out?
Donna: The first thing that stands out is that CFA is the biggest of all the registries and has the most shows, judges, etc. Also, I feel that CFA has very high standards with the focus on the welfare of the cat. For instance, CFA does not accept feral/domestic hybrids or new mutations that endanger the health of the cat and has hired geneticists to advise on this type of thing. Although I am not very familiar with the other registries, I don’t believe any of the others are as careful as CFA to preserve the health and purity of the domestic pedigreed cat.Jay: What other associations have you ever been involved with?
Donna: As I mentioned above, my very first cat show was an ACFA show. I did show in a handful of ACFA shows in the early/mid ‘70s; I even took my first CFA National Winner to a couple of ACFA shows to see how he would do in the other association. However, ACFA was not impressed with this cat and by the time I had my next National Winner in CFA, I didn’t bother to even take him to any shows in another association.I registered my cattery name, TSAR BLU, in 5 associations in the early 1970s when I started breeding (CFA, ACFA, ACA, CFF, and CROWN) and added TICA when it was formed. Other than registering the cattery and the handful of ACFA shows mentioned above, I’ve only been active with CFA. I have guest-judged for other associations in Australia and Europe.
Jay: When and why did you decide to become a judge?
Donna: After campaigning Russian Blues to national wins in 1975, 1977, and 1980 and a Persian to a national win in 1979, I took a couple of years off to devote to my ‘noncat’ career. I didn’t show more than a couple of shows per year in 1981 – 83 and felt really out of the loop. At the 1983 Annual banquet, as I was watching the slide presentation of the national winners, I realized that I could recognize good examples of various breeds even though I hadn’t been out on the circuit watching them compete. Since I felt that I needed to broaden my participation in the cat fancy beyond just exhibiting, judging seemed a natural next step.I began preparing my package for application to the judging program and submitted it for consideration the following year. I was accepted as a shorthair trainee in October 1984, but took my training a bit slow since I was campaigning a cat for a national win that year. I was advanced to apprentice shorthair judge at the June 1985 Annual meeting, and became an allbreed judge in 1989, concurrent with my fifth national win with a Russian Blue. Even though judging allows less time to exhibit, I’ve never given up exhibiting entirely and even managed to complete an entire national win campaign in 1997 while judging and serving on the CFA Board.
Jay: What is your fondest memory in CFA?
Donna: My fondest memory is the whole show year of 1979-80. That was the year I showed Zane Grey who was my all-time favorite cat, as well as being the finest example of the Russian Blue I have ever had the pleasure to see. Zane and I traveled for 40 consecutive weekends (August through April) and I made many lifelong friends. This was the last year where CFA permitted only four rings per show and all the points earned counted (no averaging, etc.). There was a camaraderie among the exhibitors that year which hasn’t occurred again since the change of the scoring system. There were so many shows that were fun and exciting that it would be hard to single out any one event – it was just a great year that I will never forget.Jay: What advice would you give to Russian Blue exhibitors about showing this breed?
Donna: In almost every case, a Russian Blue should be shown as early as possible – preferably from the earliest allowable kitten show. A Russian who starts too late is likely to have developed a preference for solitude and not tolerate the hustle and bustle of a show. Also, the human should try to make sure that the Russian has only good experiences at the shows. This includes giving little food treats after every judging, doting on the cat with lots of extra affection for the whole weekend, and being careful about who handles the cat in the show. I am ashamed to admit it, but there are judges who are too rough in their handling for Russian Blues; sometimes it is better to forego the ring of a rough judge rather than risk mishandling. A Russian Blue is a bit like an elephant – he never forgets and he never forgives. Once a Russian Blue has been mishandled in the show ring, there is a high probability that he will refuse to show amenably in the future.Jay: What advice would you give Russian Blue breeders while developing this breed?
Donna: The Russian Blue lines in the U.S. are relatively free of genetic defects and inherited health problems, so don’t be afraid to line-breed to set characteristics. I have always concentrated first on type and then on coat texture, color, etc. To do this I line-bred rather heavily, especially in the early years. For example, Zane Grey who had the best type I ever bred, was the result of a mother-son breeding. I am not recommending only line-breeding, but I don’t believe type can be set without it. Once I had the bone, profile, eyes, ears, etc. set well enough to be predictable, I brought in a female from another line or sent one of my girls out for a breeding to add a characteristic that was not yet strong in my line.I also recommend against using any cat for breeding that has a structural fault (e.g. nose bump; high ear-set; small eyes; slanted or close-set eyes; etc.), no matter how beautiful the rest of the cat. I have seen breeders set bad profiles into a line with a single use of a male who had a bad profile. Once some of these defects are set, they are VERY hard to eliminate. While not all judges will penalize heavily and the cat with one bad feature may still win, using such a cat for breeding will not be beneficial to the breed in the future. I strongly recommend that a new breeder find out as much as possible about the cats behind a potential sire/dam, avoiding any who had or produced lockets, nose bumps/dips, high ears, small, close-set eyes or extra heavy bone. Avoiding these features at the outset will save a lot of time and heartache down the breeding road.
copyright © 1999 Jay Lehman