Khim is our stud boy, he is a huge softy and has the most amazing laid back and loving temperament, his nature is a credit to his breeder Dr Bird and also I believe because we have always tried to give him lots of love, every day, including a walk in the woods. Khim lives with us in our old sunroom where he can bask in the sun and watch the world go by.
A “Khim” is a musical instrument in Thailand. It has the bonus of having a second meaning in Old English which is “Brave King”. We also chose his name because of the 1960s book about a Siamese called Kim and because Khims’ grandsire comes from a buddhist monastry in Thailand…
Khim is definitely East meets West!
Is Khim available for visiting queens?
Update Summer 2023. After 7 wonderful years of Khim kittens, Khim has now been neutered and will hopefully be joining us in the cottage soon to enjoy his well deserved retirement.
Khim is registered with the GCCF on the Siamese active register, however, because our cats are first and foremost our much loved pets and this is our hobby, we are essentially a “closed cattery”.
This is also for the health of our cats.
Providing a public stud service requires particular facilities, is time consuming, and I know I would find it a huge responsibility looking after other peoples cats on a regular basis.
We hope Khim will be available for more informal, occasional planned matings, to breeders with whom we have developed a good working relationship.
Any visiting queens will be required to be fully tested, health checked by a vet, and checked by ourselves.
Khim’s “family tree”
Khim’s lines are both unique and genetically diverse, being a combination of five generation plus of pure Siamese (no Orientals) from old UK, European and US lines, and one line that has a seal point Siamese from the breeds native land of Thailand, Old Siam.
Two extra special lines that we have felt very honoured to be given care of are Khim’s maternal line which was entrusted to us by Brigitte Sierk. Brigitte bred pure Siamese, saving many old UK Siamese lines during her years of breeding, and was a very respected and renown breeder of Old Style Siamese, known for breeding both beautiful Siamese, with excellent lines and old type, while being diligently committed to good health and temperament.
Another of Khim’s lines goes back to a very handsome seal point Siamese that Dr Cristy imported with the help of the seminal author on the history of Siamese cats, Martin Clutterbuck. Together Martin, Cristy and the then breed chair Jenni, brought back Khim’s grandfather from a historic buddhist monastery in rural Thailand. Dr Cristy Bird is also well known for being a long standing breeder of Old Style Siamese, putting health and temperament first and foremost in her breeding decisions for Old Style Siamese, and uniquely, for being the first to follow in the footsteps of the Victorians by bringing the original Siamese back into Siamese lines.
All the Siamese we have today originated from Old Siam, now known as Thailand.
I heartily recommend Martins’ book as it has a wonderful amount of detail on the history of Siamese, including a chapter by Dr Bird, and accounts of other breeders and lines in Khim’s pedigree such as the Catarea Cattery, and the Ed and Malee Rose “Chiang Mai” Siamese cats. Ed Rose was an American academic living in Thailand, a CFA registered breeder, he kept his lines CFA registered and bred the original siamese extremely well with his wife, Malee. (CFA is a US cat registry that only allows Siamese in the original 4 colour points to be registered as Siamese). Wi for example was a very beautiful seal point that the Roses bred and gifted to the King of Spain, Wi is another of Khim’s ancestors, his great, grt, grt, grt, grt aunty! Wi’s line of descent comes through Chiangmai Pippin of Sarsenstone, a handsome bluepoint that Dr Bird bought from the Roses in 1999, so Piab was Khim’s great, grt, grt, grt, grandfather. Wi’s seal point twin was also featured on the 9 baht stamp in Thailand, so they were a very famous pair of Siamese siblings.
Khim has been exciting for us on so many fronts…..we try to breed for health so it has always been very important for us to have genetically diverse pedigrees. I also wanted to help the gene pool of Old Style Siamese by bringing in new lines; to breed for temperament as well as type; and I like to breed in a way that helps the pure Siamese lines as, although these lines were once the norm for Siamese breeders, in the last few decades with the rise in the popularity of the Orientals, they have sadly started to become increasingly quite rare.
When I first started to venture into breeding, over a decade ago now, I could hardly have imagined I would be so fortunate as to be able to have a Siamese boy with a seal point grandfather from Thailand (Old Siam!) in his lines, nor to have such a soft and loving stud boy. I chose Khim from his litter as he was the most laid back boy, and he has certainly proven to be that and so much more.