| Our Beginning |
| This little tour of our website may take awhile, because we have several important members of our family to introduce you to.�� Gary and I hope that our website will not only introduce you to our show cats, but show you our love for our cats and what we are trying to accomplish.�� So sit back, relax and enjoy. Dragonmaine Cattery opened its doors in September 1997 with the purchase of Daddy's Amigo as a show cat and Daddy's Little Sophie as a pet.�� We fell in love with them at first sight.� Amigo was only��8 months old and Sophie was a young girl of 4 months.� Amigo was a Brown Classic Tabby with White and Sophie was a Black and White. Little did we know at that time what lay ahead.�� When we got home Amigo and Sophie came in and just took over our home and our hearts.�� Amigo was ready to play all the time and Sophie was very sophisticated from the beginning.� When we got Amigo and Sophie, the show season was half over and the next closest show was in Tulsa, Oklahoma.� And, as you have probably figured out....we were there with our two cats.� In the first ring Amigo not only got Blue for first in his color class, he got a black which is Best of Color in his color class, but he also got an Orange which is Second Best of Breed.� Not bad for a first timer, first ring, first show.� Boy, were we excited.� I was learning how to keep a show book and Gary was grooming Amigo and Sophie.� Amigo was an instant pro at showing.� He loved it and we loved watching him.�� Sophie was another story.....but we'll save that for later.� Remember, when we bought Amigo, he was the show cat and Sophie was the pet. Soon we started going to more shows and the more we learned, the more we wanted to accomplish.�� Our first task at hand was granding Amigo.�� I bet that brought a question to mind!�� Granding?� Let me see if I can say it in 500 words or less!�� At this time, Amigo was a Premier.�� He had earned his six winners ribbons.�� For him to become a Grand Premier, he would need to beat 75 other premiers.�� Once he did this, he would then be a Grand Premier.� Thus the term "granding" came into our vocabulary.�� Learning all of this can really make your head spin. In the meantime, Sophie was growing up and becoming quite the lady.� She also earned her winners ribbons, became a Premier and then a Grand Premier.� As time went on and we showed these two wonderful cats, it became apparent that the judges preferred Sophie.�� So we made the decision to show Sophie the next season.� This was April 1998.� The next show season started May 1, 1998 and ended April 30, 1999. During the 1998/199 show season ( our years run May to April), we introduced a new member to our family, Daddy's One-In-A-Million.� We lovingly call her Millie.�� She is to be the first of our foundation cats.� Millie was only 4 months old when she came to live with us, but, she really took her place in our home.� She is a Brown Patched Tabby with White - talk about flash.� It would be 2 1/2 years later when Millie would became a Grand Champion and earn the title of Distinquished Merit. |