I wish to thank May Laukholm ((N)Mollèn's), Johanne Klovning (av (N)Utsira ) and Agnetha Öhrn (S*Niwel's ), and Karl Klemetsen ((N) MASCALI'S) who have generously let me use their pictures, without which this page could not have been made !

Sisters : littersisters (N)Utsira BA Blue Temptation BS,(left) and (N)Utsira BA Blue Bonita BS (right)

(did someone mention the word " slight resemblance" ? That's what I thought...)

This page is NOT a 10 minutes genetics course.There will be NO terminology in latin. And no high flying theories.  But it's an interesting page in order for leighmen to  understand the similarities and differences between the the variations within the breed.

Below you see two kittens;- Mollèn's Betty Blue, Persian girl, to the left. And an Exotic Shorthair girl, Mollèn's Brave at Heart. One Exotic girl, one Perisan girl. AND THEY ARE LITTERSISTERS! These two have one parent who's longhair, and one that's EXOTIC shorthair

. And here,  below, we see my stud male from another PER/EXO cross. But these have both turned out Shorthaired individuals !

His littersister,- Mollèns X-Files are both shorthair Exotics. Even though their mother, Mixtur's Gerri, was Trad. longhaired Persian.  From this it should not be difficult to understand the fact that the amount of longhair kittens vs Shorthaired ones, is never fully predictable. The only thing you can do, is taking educated guesses. Even EXO/EXO matings produce longhaired kittens. Some combinations do however produce more Exotics than others, just as it's a fact that some genes are more dominant than others. It all depends on how strong the genes in an individual, actually is. And to what degree the individuals are close to being homozygot short- or long-haired.

One of the most difficult tasks when you're a bereder, is to choose the breeder animals. One imprtant goal is to make flaws and congenital diseases disappear, and to further improve things like open eye impression and broader nose triangles. But a lot of the fascination of it all, is that nature in the end takes the upper hand and never cease to amaze breeders like myself.

Below I have put together  pictures showing mom/dad/kitten - and  to try to demonstrate to you how I consider around this topic.

You always start from scratch. You read pedigrees, you study result of earlier litters from same combinations, look at the important factors like Shape, Type, Bone structure, Expression and facial carachteristics. Then you choose the two breeders - a male and a female cat. They have their own sets of pros-and con-genes. - and in theory kittens get 50% from each.

In the middle I have placed the offspring. Please compare them and see if you can spot the row of heritage here... You see - in both these cases, some features are rather clear ! :-))

(N)Utsira Blue Angel	(N)Utsira BA Blue Tempest BS	(N)Utsira BA Blue Bonita BS	(N)Utsira Blue Surprise

This foursome is :Dam: (N)Utsira Blue Angel,  daughter (N)Utsira BA Blue Tempest BS, (N)Utsira BA Blue Bonita BS and the proud dad (N)Utsira Blue Surprise. The Sire and his two daughters are all bluepoint Himalayans, and the left "baby" in the middle is of course, my little SANDIE. If you look at this little family, three of them are blue pointed, while Blue Angel is bluecreamtabby pointed- and both  Sandie and Tempen has, in my opinion, got her daddy's head shape, facial expression and mask appearance, while she has her mother's eyes, shape and size and even expression is Mom's.

So, let's say that's what we want as the result: Angel's color, and Surprise's Expression and shape of head, ears and face... We know - beacause we see it for ourselves - that it in fact is the case with these two females from this litter. Now, one might be tempted to ask : Is any of this related to the offspring's sex ? Does this tendency of resemblance inherited, also apply if there were male offspring ? Or - perhaps - is it the mother's features appearing in the faces of any male offspring ? Not so easy to answer, perhaps ? Well - let's see :

(N)Utsira BA Only-in-your-dreams BS	(N)Utsira BA mr.Frosty-Magic BS

Here are the two "boys in the band" - Frosty and Dreamboy. They are, clearly, cream pointed, both of them. And here we can - right away -  say, that they have their color features from thier mom. She's blue-cream-tabby pointed Himalayan. How is the facial features, expression and head shape then? Well - in my opinion, Dreamboy resembling his littersisters, very muchn, apart from the colors. While Frosty is almost his maternal ancestry's spitting image, also in facial features and expression. Blue Angel has this tinsy bit lower upper eyebrows, which Frosty has.  She also carries her nose broader, as does Frosty. But still, from a competitve point of view, in this litter, Surprise's phenotype was slightly stronger. 3 out of 4 is not bad at all....

   This trio is - from the Left : S*Mixtur's Olivia - PER n 22 - then their daughter, S*Niwel Total Eclipse of my Heart, PER n 03 -  TULIP - and last  the proud daddy, S*Niwel Key to my Life, EXO n 03. Tulip - my black/white bicolor baby girl, shows exactly the same tendency to have inherited  characteristics that I mentioned in the case of Sandie and her parentas : Tulip has her mother's expression and her shape and expression of the eyes, while she got her fathers colors - also eye-color. Do we detect a pattern here, or....?

I don't know if you learned any genetics by now, my hope is that you haven't. BUT - that you do recognize the degree of uncertainty, and also the enormous skills formed by years and years of experience that enable excellent Cat breeders to get remarkable offspring from their breeding material time and time again.

There's a lotof research going on all over the world, on genetics. But the best results seems tome to come from those who have both the knowledge in theories, and years and years of experience. There's a combination that cannot be beat.......... and is not for sale - it has to be aquired through the real , down-t-earth WORK that an experienced breeder does year in, year out.

And which shows so clearly in the beautyfull offspring of their cats;- and they all have it here,

        May Laukholm (N)Mollèns Persian&Exotics Cattery,-  Agnetha Öhrn at S*Niwel Exotics & Persians, and Johanne Klovning, (N)Utsira      Persian  Exotic & Himalayan Cattery.  Girls, I envy you out of the goodness of my heart !