The story below was written by Tiamo's breeder, Virginia Wheeldon, and originally appeared in the National Siamese Cat Club newsletter. CFA's Highest Scoring Siamese Kitten 2006-07
Great Lakes Region's 14th Best Kitten 2006-07 In the spring of 2006 I showed two cats against each other - a lilac point male named Ayuthaya Kashan of Thaifong and a seal point female named Thaifong Star Dancing. Both were nicely refined, balanced cats with slightly different strengths, and the wins went back and forth between them. In the end they finished their grands at the same show, on the same day. It doesn't get much better than that! But what was even more exciting to me
was that their bloodlines were different enough that I could breed them together. The breeding was done in early May, and the much anticipated litter was born in July. Starla delivered three large, healthy kittens and, from birth, the little male stood out. Although I usually find it difficult to predict show type |in newborn Siamese kittens, this little guy looked so strikingly different that I took a picture of him when he was just a few hours old. I hoped to capture on film that special something that I thought I could see. As the litter matured, all three kittens had nice type, but the
blue point male continued to stand out. I let the friendly lilac girl with the enormous ears and the elegant, but dark, seal girl go to pet homes and registered the baby blue as Thaifong Tiamo (aka Ti).
Tiamo made his showring debut at the Buffalo Cat Fanciers show in November where he was competing against more mature kittens and was mostly overlooked. But the one Siamese breeder judge made him best of breed and gave him his first final. He didn't go out again until the Ramapo show in December and by then he had matured enough to get noticed. He took best of breed and finalled in five of the six rings, including his first best kitten win. We felt we were on the way, and started planning shows. The only problem was that we got shut out of the only other show we could get to in December. But the long, difficult trips paid off as Tiamo proved to be competitive against the top running kittens of the time. He scored in the top three kittens at most of his shows and was best kitten 12 times in forty finals. Tiamo's kitten run spanned just in seven and a half shows. At his last show he was only shown on the Saturday. Once he hit forty finals and started replacing rings, the point counts were not high enough to keep many points. He finished his kitten run in style that last day, finalling in all rings including two best kittens. At that point we felt we had accomplished our goals - a comfortable lead for best Siamese kitten and enough points to secure a regional win. On Sunday morning of his last show Ti left from Ohio to go and live with Dianne and Bruce Alexy in North Carolina. It was a sad day for me. When you show a cat or kitten week after week, and share those long trips and lonely nights in motel rooms, you can't help but develop a special bond. How do you say good-bye to a little cat who has been such major part of your life, and shared your bed and your heart since he left his mother and learned to think of you as mom? I took consolation in knowing that he was going where he would be treasured and have an opportunity to make a contribution to the Siamese breed. I believe that Tiamo is the best Siamese male I have bred to date. He is difficult to fault with his refined, elegant boning, length of limb and extravagant tail. His body color is flawless - clear and white - and his coat lies close to enhance the lines. His deep blue, expressive "bedroom" eyes are his crowning glory. Tiamo's pedigree is a combination of most the lines I have worked with over the years. I feel he is a tribute to the many fine Siamese behind him and the people who bred them.
PEDIGREE OF GC, RW THAIFONG TIAMO OF ALEXY, DM
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