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Here is Freyr in the barn in Iceland - This photo was taken last year - 2000 at Christmas Time.
When we finally came to New Zealand, it didn't take us long to acquire more cats! We had one rescue cat and a little kitten who we obtained from the Humane Society of NZ, as we wanted to give needful felines a home.
This as our first rescue cat - Willow - he was estimated to be around 8 years old when we 'adopted' him in 1990. He was soon joined by a little 6 month kitten who was a very sick girl. She had been abused by a bunch of thugs where she lived and we took her home where she grew and we nurtured her into a beautiful cat - Jasmine. The saddest thing was than she was killed by a speeding truck when she was just 18 months old and at the peak of her beauty. We were devastated as we really were looking forward to giving her a good life after the trauma she had suffered when she was a baby.
Because we didn't want another kitten as she or he would remind us of Jasmine, we opted for an older cat again, once we could think of getting another cat to share our life with Willow (who missed Jasmine terribly - they had become good friends.) We wanted to share our home with a cat who really needed a home, a cat that was hard to find a home for, as we felt that we had a lot of love and patience to help a really unfortunate cat. Back to the Humane Society. They advised that there was a female cat in a 'halfway house' (foster home), and that this lady who kept them for adoption said that this cat was very difficult indeed. She had never settled in with other cats and was almost unadoptable. The Jenssons to the rescue!
We opened up our home to Primrose.
She is a black spay, who was a bundle of hisses and spits and who hid under our bed for 3 days and wouldn't eat or drink or talk to us or Willow. In the end, we had to leave a dish of food and drink under the bed and she finally ate, and little by little she came out of her hiding place and miracles of miracles, she finally became one of the 'family' and even accepted Willow (and he accepted her), so that we felt we had accomplished something.
We moved to our present home in June 1993 and the felines settled in with us very quickly. Almost a year passed and everything was fine. Then in the Summer of 1993 - 1994, we noticed that our Willow was not very happy. We took him to the vet's for tests as he was losing weight very rapidly. His kidneys were failing him and there was nothing to be done. Thankfully, he did not suffer long as he died in his sleep soon after he came back home from the Vet's. We were completely bereft without our big grey and white boy. He was such a lovely cat. Primrose was also missing him.
And then... I made a big mistake (according to Primrose anyway!). I decided to try and get a long haired cat. Again we went to the Humane Society (as the SPCA didn't have any cats at that time), and we were informed of a (Pedigree) Persian cat - a Chocolate Tortoiseshell - who was a breeding cat that the owner didn't want. Why? Because she didn't get on with her other breeding cat. We phoned this breeder, who said we could have her for nothing, as she just didn't know what to do with her.
We went along to see her and I thought she was the most unusual coloured cat I had ever seen. I didn't know much about Persian cats at that time! We took her home (after being informed by this breeder that she had escaped whilst 'in season' and that she was probably pregnant (!!!!), and we let her out of the cardboard box into the house. This was unfortunately the end of peace as Primrose knew it. She left the house and disappeared for a week. We were very upset, as we had expected her to be difficult but never expected to leave us!
Tigerlilly (Pedigree name Sharella Zeena) at 4 years of age.
Time passed, the beautiful Persian cat (who was not pregnant, thank goodness!) settled in quite well.
Then one day, Primrose was at the door. However, she did not come in at all but would only eat outside. No matter how we tried to coax her back in, she would not live with Tigerlilly, no matter what!
I decided to get Lilly spayed, as I was not a breeder at the time, knew nothing about breeding cats and did not want to learn, either! I contacted her breeder as her name was on Lilly's vaccination card, and informed her of Lilly's spaying. She then advised me that Lilly had never been transfered to her former owner's name (the woman who gave her to me), and that she would transfer Lilly's ownership directly to my name.
I had a long talk with this breeder, Mrs Thomson, and we seemed to 'hit it off' on the phone. Eventually, I went to visit her and she encouraged me to put our Lilly into a few cat shows. We did, and Lilly did very well and won lots of ribbons (mostly for her unusually beautiful colour) and became a Premier (a spayed or neutered Champion).
Time passed and Mrs Thomson and myself became friends and I decided to buy another Persian cat. This was a little black Persian Kitten - Sharella Cleo - and I arranged to collect her in June 1994 - she was 3 1/2 moths old. I took her home and just before I arranged to have her spayed, Mrs Thomson contacted me and said that it seemed a pity to have this kitten spayed, as she carried most of the Persian solid colours genetically. She also said that Cleo (We call her Tamsin), 'carried' the Colourpoint gene. Was I interested in perhaps becoming a NZ Cat Fancy Registered breeder?
I had never thought about this but Mrs Thomson said she thought I would make a good breeder and that she was happy to sponsor my breeder's application to the New Zealand Cat Fancy. Needless to say, this is exactly what happened and I became a Registered breeder of these lovely cats.
TODAY.....
Today, Primrose is still with us, and has moved into our garage. She comes into the house from time to time (when the weather is bad), but she just doesn't like Persian cats. Not one nor many, she just won't come back inside. She is 12 years old, very healthy - we give her good food, all her vaccinations are kept up to date, worming, flea treatments and all the rest of feline requirements but, she will always be independent of us.
We are grateful that she didn't completely abandon us.
Our Lilly is 10 1/2 years old, still lovely and feisty as she always has been. Not a cat's cat, but a people (human) cat. Sociable with people to the maximum, very, very intelligent, and believe it or not, TOP CAT. (Without a doubt. Everyone gives way to Lilly!)
Tamsin (Sharella Cleo) is 7 1/2 years old, a lovely (and naughty) little (she always stayed small for a Persian), Black Persian breeding cat, who is an excellent mother and who also has BIG babies.
Here is one of them - Hekla Charlotte Soraya Mary - Big Tortoiseshell Kitten - only 15 weeks old in this photo.
And that is Our Story. How it all began here at Hekla Persians. We love all of our cats, respect their individuality and try and give them as good a Quality of Life as we are able to. That is out goal and I think we are succeeding.
We will say 'So Long for now.' Don't forget to send us e-mail, we would love to hear from you.
