Looking for a breed.....

[Crittercall]

I have a friend who just lost a cat to cancer. His SO had gone way over and above what most people would have done to save this cat's life, to no avail. Today they learned that their other cat has cancer (at first they thought he had saddle thrombosis but it turned out to be tumors causing the problems). It has already metastasized to his lungs.

ANYway, they want a Somali kittten. They've emailed a couple of breeders and gotten typical snotty breeder responses. Does anybody know of a breeder (or rescue organization) for this breed that you could help me put him in touch with? They'd give the little critter a great home.

He's supposed to bring her here tomorrow night because she wants to see my Cavaliers - she's seen them in shows but never in person - and he wants her to see Capn Sweets the African Gray. He is absolutely smitten with this bird,

Any help or direction to look would be greatly appreciated!

[SharonM]

Oh my ! What a gorgeous kitty. I'd never heard of it, so I had to go and look for myself! The first site I found has everything you need
http://www.fanciers.com/breed-faqs/somali-faq.html
including a link to North American breeders that it took some clicking around to get to
http://www.breedlist.com/na/som-na.html

Two cats with cancer I don't think I'd handle that very well.

[Pigsterz]

My heart goes out to your friend. We lost our cat to cancer last year and we were heartbroken. I'm getting teary-eyed just remembering.

They should try to go to some cat shows. Good way to meet the breeders. They have a schedule of shows at the CFA website : http://www.cfainc.org

When we went looking for a maine coon that's what we did. There were definitely some that didn't give you the time of day, but we did find our breeder who turned out to be wonderful. I also learned to call, not email. A lot of the breeders are not very good about checking their email.

I just searched yahoo groups too and there are several for Somali cats. They may want to check them out and participate. There are some for breeders in there too. (I'm not necessarily endoring yahoo groups. Just that I participate in the mc one & figured they might have the same for somalis).
http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/Scie...?show_groups=1

Let me know if you need other info. I'd be glad to help. Email me.

And please give my warm thoughts to your friend.

[Crittercall]

Thanks for the info. I checked the show schedule and saw that there is one coming up next weekend withing driving distance so I called to let them know about it.

They had bought a Silver Somali tonight. I was so happy for them. This one is "his" cat and only 8 weeks old; she thinks she is going to get a different one at the end of this month from a different breeder.

So while they are still sad over the illness of Sam, they are enjoying a new kitten at the same time.

I appreciate the help from everyone, and my friend appreciates you sending her condolences. She doesn't go to a pet website so she doesn't know what a family we can become.