As part of a kitten swap agreement between Katka of Svobody cattery in Svoboda, Czech Republic, we have managed to aquire a new queen for the cattery…Justine.
Justine was an absolutely gorgeous little girl with the most bold and loving personality you could wish for. She had already clocked up some serious voyager miles, as she first traveled, by train for 4 hours, from Svoboda to Prague and then, for 1.5 hours, from Prague to Zurich. Followed by another 2 hours on a train and in a car to Vorarlberg in Austria. All this and we hadn’t even started home yet.
8 days after that she was on the plane, with Eudype, from Zurich to Johannesburg. A flight of 10 hours, however we were forced to deliver them to the airport 5 hours early. Therefore, they traveled for more than 16 hours straight.
Either way, they both arrived happy and healthy and she was happily chasing flies all over the house and letting Stephanie carry her everywhere.
She has the most fabulous forbears. All with the most fantastic coat length and colour. He father and grandfather were very large cats so we had high hopes that she would follow in their footsteps.
In April 2010 she debuted in Adult showing classes an achieved a clean sweep becoming a champion at her first ever adult show. I did continue to show her on and off until she achieved Grand Champion status, but her main contribution was definitely in the kitten department,
She certainly lived up our expectations and exceeded them. Her children included Sp Pr Valinor Elwing (Sparkle) who is still my daughters cat and Valinor Luthien, who is the dam of Sp Pr Abymoon Glorfindel, Abymoon Luna Lovegood, Abymoon Varda, Sp Pr Abymoon Salvia Bolger and Gr Pr Abymoon Bell Gamgee. Her granddaughter Luna Lovegood has also produced her first litter of which Valinor Vilya was a member.
Valinor Elwing was her last kitten, afterwhich we neutered her. She was the most fantastic mother to all of her kittens, as well as other queens kittens. She has transferred this temperament and abilities down to her descendents. Interestingly, she defended our home passionately, always being the first to attack any intruder. She was also incredibly agile, being able to catch birds mid-flight!
In 2015 we lost Justine to kidney failure. We were devastated and still miss her terribly.