The purr-fect family

ONE WANGANUI household owns five of the cats that have been judged in New Zealand's top 40 in shows this year. The number of points each show cat wins during the year is added up at the end. Carla Purcell's Maddy came top of the short hairs and her son's Dennis was eighth.
Maddy had been to seven shows throughout the country and was best cat in Wanganui for two years running. Dennis had been to six shows.
Also on the property were three other cats that ranked in the top 40. The family aims to show its pedigree cats overseas next ? at the Australian Cat Federation show in Queensland in 2008.
There must be at least 20 cats on the 2.2ha peri-urban property. Some of them are in two breeding programmes ? for Bengals by Shane, 17, and for seal Burmese by Mrs Purcell.
And daughter Natalia has now started collecting Mandalays, solid coloured Burmese cats.
Breeding and showing cats is a time consuming hobby. Mrs Purcell said they each spent at least two and a-half hours a day caring for their pets and all of them bore scratches and scars from flying claws.
They were in the process of importing another Bengal cat from Australia, at a cost of about $4000.
There has been heated debate about whether to allow Bengal cats into New Zealand, and they are still not allowed in Southland. Shane said they had the reputation of being larger, wilder and better hunters than your average household moggy.
"They're supposed to breed to mini leopards. They like climbing trees and chasing things. My aim in breeding them is to bring a nice temperament out of them, because they've got nice natures."
Only one of his Bengals had ever caught anything ? a three-month-old cat that brought home a pukeko twice her size.
But Dennis got his name by being a menace in the kitchen, repeatedly and purposefully flicking dishes off the bench. Bengals were intelligent, determined, highly strung and would fetch and retrieve. Every other breed was boring in comparison, Shane said.
"The Bengal has just got so much nature. They're quite emotional as well. They will pack a shit and they just won't talk to you."
Show cats had to have the right physical characteristics, and the right temperament. Cats that fell short were used for breeding.
Special treatment for them extended to premium foods, and Burmese needed to be groomed before shows. Both Maddy and Dennis loved being in shows, their owners said.
To find out more, see www.burmesecat.co.nz and www.bengal.co.nz.