Recent History:
Gitalaya
Cattery was established in 1981 in sunny
South Africa in the
small rural community of Muldersdrift, Gauteng Province
- previously known as the Transvaal. We
established a successful Burmese breeding
programme and also ran our own competitive
boarding kennel and cattery.
The
following pages give some indication of
the measure of progress and success we
achieved over the years.
In 1997 my
husband John Francois passed away
unexpectedly. This precipitated profound
changes in my life. Least of these changes
was the meeting of my husband, Ed
Pomerantz, via a mailing list for widowed
folks on the Internet. My
beloved Ed passed away very unexpectedly
very unexpectedly on October 12th, 2002 (see
footnote for 2004)
When John
passed on, my family who live in Toronto,
insisted that I plan a trip to visit them.
Fate had other plans for me. Ed and his
son David visited South Africa and during
his brief visit, Ed proposed and I
accepted.
Fortunately
my dear friend Artur de Freitas offered his
services as a house sitter while I was
away for three months. During this time Ed
and I were married. In the course of my
stay, Ed & I bought our home in Upper
Freehold, Monmouth County, NJ. (We also
found our new home on the Internet, a home
large enough to accommodate us all, the
willing, dedicated human slaves to our
cats!) Ed had been part of a dog mailing
list and still is though his focus has
changed to Rhodesian Ridgebacks .. as he
had been planning to adopt a dog for
David. One of the many posts had offered
our present property for sale and as a
joke, Ed forwarded the mail to me
whimsically suggesting a change of
lifestyle! Ed had thought it appropriate
it as it had a "kennel
license!!
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Our
home in Monmouth County - NJ, USA |
I thought I
had deleted the email, but found it during his
visit. (Ed followed up on the email when
he got back to the United States). Later
on my return to South Africa to sell my
two properties - one of which was my
boarding kennel and cattery I had owned
and managed. In addition, I had my
"farm" of 72 acres and planned
my move with my menagerie.
Besides our
cats which are the foundation of our
"Stateside" breeding programme,
we shipped two dogs: a Rhodesian Ridgeback
and a German Shepherd dog.
The
Gitalaya breeding programme focuses
primarily on Burmese, known as Foreign or
European Burmese in North America,
specialising in Reds, Creams and Torties.
In
addition, we breed Bombays, the
"miniature Black Panther" with a
"patent-leather coat" and
"new penny copper eyes".
We will be establishing a breeding
programme for Burmillas too. Our
foundation cats were bred by Horizon &
Strathkirk Catteries - Ann Kidd
& Ivan Battye - Burmese, Burmillas
& Tiffanies.
2002 : We
are no longer breeding Bombays or Asians.
Our Bombay stud will soon be returning to
South Africa to Ally's Cats - to my dear
friend, Alison Renwick - to continue with
the programme I started in 1995 ..
Our Burmilla stud is happily fulfilling
his life as a resident "Teaser Tom" -
satisfying the "Blonde Burmese Bombshells"
keeping both him & Skeeta pretty busy as we breed very
few litters each year ..
2004: The
untimely & unexpected passing of my beloved
husband, Edward Pomerantz in October 2002.
Yet again, I was faced with difficult
decisions. New Jersey was no longer
the haven it had been while Ed was alive.
Winters were bad when Ed was with me; they
became intolerable after he died. My
family, once more, suggested relocating to
Canada!
In 1967/68, I
had spent a year in Dallas at Parkland
Memorial Hospital in the OB/GYN section.
My closest & dearest friend, Willa, lives in
Texas - a friendship that Ed fostered &
nourished while he was alive.
Willa
encouraged me to move south (not that I
needed much! - a woman who was born &
raised in South Africa enjoys the warmer
weather!). We found a wonderful lot
with beautiful mature trees a mere mile
from her lakeside home in Huntsville, TX.
Under Willa's "supervision", my new home
was built. Bob Maddux who builds
"Wendy Houses" or children's play houses
erected an incredible outdoor cattery -
built to my specifications. It is
airconditioned to combat the hot, humid
south east Texas summers & also has
heating for the short cold winter months. |
