Kanani-Cats ha Jeruschalmi
Difficulties


I never wanted to become a breeder. I know nothing about it, as well as having an occupation which places considerable demands on me. Besides, I already had my three castrated tomcats. Imagine if this semi-domesticated tomcat had not appeared. You already met him in the introduction. He was more beautiful than any cat I had ever owned. If only he had allowed himself to be stroked and had not always shied away when I fed him, his movements saying: don't touch me. And yet I was so smitten by his elegant, long legs, crazy about his green eyes, which were like gooseberries or kiwi fruit. I hoped he would father offspring, tame, tiny, loveable kittens. The next time I was in Europe I brought him back a bride, an oriental shorthair. She didn't look like him, but her body, her ears and her long legs were slightly similar. Only her gait was completely different. Like a woman in stiletto heels, just like a lady. Mr. Tomcat had the gait of a small leopard.

The leopard courted the lady. At first she resisted somewhat, but then she succumbed to his charm. I waited for what was to come. They were sweet kittens, it goes without saying! They looked like the tomcat. They had his broad head, his long body.

They had his gooseberry eyes. Indeed, they even had his small tufts of hair on their ears. I was happy, until I noticed......
They were almost as wild as he was. They enjoyed being stroked, they purred in my hands. Afterwards, however, they climbed over every obstacle. They didn't want to remain in my courtyard, even though there was plenty of space.   

This was not what I understood by tame cats. I had made a mistake. I began to read books about cats. I visited cat exhibitions until my eyes and feet were sore.

As I stood in front of a cage of Abyssinian cats I was sure that this was the cat I had to crossbreed. The heads with their large ears were exactly right. An experienced breeder gave me her address. This was how I came to travel to Germany
with my female cat on heat. The male was lovely and had a very sweet nature. However, he didn't want to mate with this wild monster from Jerusalem. All she did was scratch and hiss! I didn't know what to do! Then the owner of the male cat took my female and held her tightly under his arm.
The male sniffed undisturbed at her behind and then mated with her! Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and I flew back with my cat. Once again I waited for the big day. It came. Yet why did my cat not have a kitten with spots? Had I made another mistake? I now HAD TO learn about genetics. My head throbbed, but I now knew how to restore the missing spots. It worked, otherwise there would be no spotted Kanaanis.

I don't want to list all the difficulties here - that would be a bit too much for my homepage. Nevertheless, I still want to show one example of what can happen.

This litter was from Buba. Note, only one male was involved. The two male kittens are ticked. One is genetically red, the other chocolate, and the female kitten grew to become a perfect, spotted cat. Doesn't that look funny?

Unfortunately, breeders are now making life difficult for me. They are behaving rather like fare-dodgers, even though the breed is virtually unknown. You must therefore be careful if you plan to acquire a Canaani. If there are not at least two animals, a male and a female, in the pedigree which originate from the Ha Jeruschalmi Cattery, the cat in question is NOT a Canaani. You should never purchase a special breed cat without a pedigree anyway. In such instances there is always something amiss!!