My husband and I had been talking about cats since we were together but as we both had fulltime jobs we felt it would not be fair to the cats.

When he retired I still was not sure. In my former life (other city, other husband) I had indoor/outdoor kitties and when my sweet Meo died by a car accident, I knew I never wanted and outdoor kitty again -but I was not sure whether I would feel ok with an indoor cat.

But we had gone to every cat show around and knew we found Abyssinians by far the most playful and gracious cats. So one day there was this ad in the newspaper saying there was an Aby boy. My husband called immediately and we went to meet him next day. He was the child of an animal photographer who did only breed from time to time. Filou had spent his life with his Aby parents -he had no sisters and brothers - a Bengal cat, a DLH, a tabby and 4 rabbits

We knew that he needed a brother and were prepared to go to a shelter when we read another ad in a local advertising magazine, saying there was a mix Aby/Siberian Forest cat. We were so curious that we had to call. Tigris was the last of 4 brothers and sisiters and he was already promised to another lady but his humans had a not-so-purrfect feeling about this lady so they allowed us to come and see. Little Tigri immediately fell asleep in my arm and his owners decided to give him too us whatever the other lady would say - and she never called again! So their feelings were right.