 Azima's Gold Rush Rocky in the arms of Jamie Thiem. Photo by Kit Goodwin, taken 02-08-09. Rocky (now registered as Gold Rush) was born on 10/3/08 at Jamie Thiem's house in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jamie was an associate of Barb's, and she was taking care of several of Barb's cats. Shortly after Barb passed, Sue contacted Jamie Thiem to tell her the sad news about Barb. Jamie requested that we find homes for the cats when the rest of Barb's affairs were settled. On February 8, 2009, Kit and Sue met at the Thiems' house in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Kit took Purrfect Lily home, and Sue took the three cameo males, Ronny and his sons Russell and Rocky, to her home. (See Ron Weasley and Golden Jaspurr's pages.)  Azima Gold Rush relaxing at Sue Howland's home, March 2009. Photo by Sue Howland. A month and a half later Jennifer Kulessa, a new breeder in Germany, contacted Sue about a problem: Sue had raised a litter of two male kittens for Barb. Barb had sold one kitten to a breeder in Italy and one to Jenny. Barb never saw the kittens in person. A veterinarian examined both kittens and issued health certificates. In March 2009, Jenny wrote Sue to say that the kitten she had purchased from Barb was in heat, obviously a female, and Jenny still needed a male for her breeding program. The same thing had happened with the littermate a couple of months before Barb died: the male kitten that was sent to Italy also was actually a female. Barb had solved that situation by instructing Sue to send a "real male" to Italy at no cost to the owner except shipping. Jenny and Sue simply did the same thing, and Jenny selected Rocky to be the male for her breeding program, again at no cost except for shipping. Neither breeder paid Sue anything for the second kittens sent to them; they received the new kittens for the cost of shipping only.
 Photo taken by Jennifer Kulessa on 3/31/09. No doubt Jennifer selected Rocky for his striking, luminous amber eyes -- that he shows off dazzlingly in Jenny's fabulous photographs. She bred Rocky to the previous import from Barb, which was okay since both of Rocky's parents were excellent outcrosses. The resulting kittens' inbreeding coefficients at eight generations is only 1.99 percent, and the babies are beautiful!
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