History

Our Birmans have been the hobby, maybe the obsession, of me and my husband, Blair, since 1970, when we purchased a tiny sealpoint kitten from Mrs. Gertrude Griswold of Tacoma, WA. The kitten was the daughter of Griswold's Hoviere and PR Griswold's Clarissa... We had her shipped from Seattle to Kansas City, MO, and Blair's parents picked her up at the airport and kept her till we could come over from Columbia, where he was in school, to get her. She looked like a little princess sitting primly in her crate, waiting patiently for us. We were thrilled to have her finally, after five long months on Mrs. G's waiting list, and another three months waiting for her to be old enough to travel. We decided that her registered name would be Griswold's Tryphena, a Latin word meaning "beautiful stranger." We had no idea at the time that this name had been used many times in Birman history, and I think it brought us good luck. We chose our cattery name from Blair's initials and the first three letters of my name...

Koko's first litter was sired by Aristi-Kat Antoine, and the kittens were CH Barmar's Miss Mizzou, CH Barmar's Viva Antoine of ABB, and Barmar's Antony, who we called Tony, a darling pet boy. Koko logged many many air miles searching for the right mate for this litter! She went to Cleveland twice to visit some beautiful studs belonging to Ed and Harriet Rindfleisch, and then spent nearly four months "considering" whether to cycle after she went back to Mrs. G..... we had hoped she would be bred to Griswold's Quiff, but no, she chose instead the handsome German import belonging to Doris Greer. Oh, well. As it turned out, she must have known best after all.... After we moved to Texas in 1973, Miss Mizzou (Tiger) was sent to Colorado for breeding to CH Shesham Saba's Talisman, a son of the famed Neko de Lao-Tsun. Blair had met his owners at the first Birman Congress in Santa Monica, CA, in 1971, and had chosen Talisman for Tiger's mate. In June 1974, our lovely CH Barmar's Xingu was born. She was an outstanding show cat, and the mother of our first grand champion, GRC Barmar's Thomas Jeffery Cat.

We were very active in TICA, The International Cat Association, while we lived in Texas. Our cats claimed many wonderful awards, both national and regional. In 1981, our cat, GRC/SGRC Barmar's Bousaada of Zalina, was South Central Regional BEST CAT in TICA, and Best Sealpoint Birman in CFA's Gulf Shore Region. That same year, our lovely bluepoint spay, Barmar's Song Sung Blue, became a Grand Premier in CFA and Supreme Grand Champion Alter in TICA; the sealpoint male, GRC Barmar's Dae Kwan Do of Tzarkhan, granded and was Fourth Best Kitten in our region in TICA. Bousaada, more familiarly known as Pecos, was International Seventh Best Cat, Song Sung Blue (Tiffany) was Fourth Best Alter, and Kwan Do was 20th Best Kitten International. We are very grateful to our friends, Jack & Charlotte Nelson, and Cheryl Hogan, for loving and showing Pecos and Kwan Do so well. We have granded cats in all three major associations: CFA, TICA, and ACFA.

At present, our concentration is on the red spectrum and lynxpoint Birmans, which we began developing in 1988 in cooperation with Donald Weiden of SEDEKI Birmans. Our domestic line of redpoint cats is currently more than nine generations of pure Birman breeding, and we are very proud of our accomplishments. In December 2002, we were honored and privileged to grand the very first seal tortiepoint Birman in CFA history! Our partners in this venture have been Al and Debbie Shoemaker of Absarrah Birmans, along with Don Weiden, Sedeki. The future looks very bright for the redpoint Birmans, and we are excited to be a part of it!