How we discovered the Bombay breed

Some past and present Howe Family cats

Sapphire Blazed Blue		"Bombay" Toffee between mice!
Felix pretending he's Toffee				Johnson the "Lovely Boy(1)"

When I was a child, the family had a half-Burmese moggie and my mother (Doris Howe, also a Bombay and Asian Self Breed Club member) wanted another one. In 1991, we were lucky enough to find a black shorthair who we named Toffee. We vaguely knew that there was a "black Burmese", but that was about it. Then at the National Cat Club show in 1992, I dragged my mother over to a cage and said "Hey! This one looks just like Toffee". The cat in question was Addeish Champlers Jovita (72, F) being exhibited by Jon Trotter and was and on seeing the photograph of Toffee, said sadly "I suppose you've had him neutered?" and and proceeded to explain to us what the "Bombay" was. From then on, I knew that this was the cat for me!

Toffee bore an incredible resemblance to the "real" Bombay; in fact, in one book of cat breeds, he didn't only look like the type of cat, he looked like the actual cat pictured — you would have thought it was him!⁽²⁾ Indeed, at the Kentish Cat Society's show in 1992, we were in the vetting-in queue with Toffee bound for the Household Pet section and next to us in the queue with Boronga Black Shergar (72), was a senior Bombay breeder, who we now know as Joy Reynolds. On seeing Toffee, Joy uttered the immortal words: "My God, it could be his son!" I guess that said it all.

He was loved by us all and one day, I hope to find a full pedigree Bombay just like him. In a similar vein, Sapphire (RIP) — the blue cat pictured with her brother — was 1/4 Choc. Burmese, 1/4 Red Self Persian, 1/4 Russian Blue and 1/4 Who-Knows-What! She looked, however, very much like the Asian Blue Self cat in the picture above. Pictured below them are her brother (Felix) and their father (Johnson) who by coincidence is Toffee's cousin and just to complete the family, the masthead cat replacing Peshi on this page is Ella — the kittens' mother.

So although none of these are pedigree cats, they're still beautiful and some look at least roughly like a Bombay. Do not forget that it is only due to accidental matings and similar coincidences that some of us ever heard of the Bombay at all and without the shorthair non-pedigree cats, the breed as we know it would not exist.

Martin Howe

Author's note: After several after several years of moggies and Burmese half-pedigree cats, Doris has at last taken on a pedigree cat! She is a Lilac Asian Self girl born on 4th August 2000; she was bred by Carol Webb; she has Boronga Black Shergar (72) as one of her great grandparents; her name is Siri (Ineluki Syringa Superba, 72c) and she joined the clan on 16th December 2000.  So there you have it: from Kipling (27b x who-knows-what) through "Bombay" Toffee (27b x Black SH HP) and cousin Johnson (4⁽³⁾ x 27b), to Siri — full circle!

Notes:

1. Jon Trotter, on seeing this photograph at the Kentish Cat Society show 1998!
2. I later found out that this was a case of the young "him" looking like an older "her" — "she" being Boronga Black Savara (72) who was one of the early Bombays bred by the legendary Pat Impson, the Club's founding President and one of the main pioneers of Bombays in the UK.
3. Red Self Persian

Doris comments:

We also have Romney: a black moggie named for the Romney Marsh in Kent, who managed to mate with a neighbour's beautiful ginger fluffy male "Barnaby" before they were neutered. True love will have it's way — especially when it strikes early!

Romney had four kittens: two were vaccinated and sold via our Vet, while the other two, the big fluff Alina (a multicoloured tabby) and black-and-white semi-longhaired Juvé (named for Juventus FC due to their home strip being black and white), we kept; we had just lost Toffee to a road accident out of the village during the heat wave that year, when many small animals "went mad with the heat" and refused to come in. Like the part Burmese, Alina and Juvé both have gold eyes.

The three moggies, plus Ella and Johnson, are allowed out if I'm in, but once back are kept in. We have a 6' x 12' x 6'+ high trellis pen in the garden for sunny days for the inside cats — which will, of course, include Siri.

Update 10th May 2005 — Sapphire RIP

Sadly today at 1800 or so, the vet had to call at my mother's house and put Sapphire to sleep. She had had a low-grade inoperable cancer for about two years and although she had been comfortable during that time, it had been growing and she was now getting drastically worse. It was clear that she was suffering and that it was her time to go. She was much loved by my mother and myself and will be missed by us and also by Siri and Felix who seemed to be her special friends.

Martin Howe, 10th May 2005