author Terri Cassiday Xpressions RagaMuffins
Remember playing Mr Potato Head as a child? You didn’t like his eyes, ears, etc. so you changed them. That simple. Wouldn’t it be great if we could do that as breeders?
Of course, if it was that simple, we would all have perfect cats. Instead, we assess our cats strengths and weaknesses. Next we find a suitable mate that will “fix” the undesirable traits. Voila!….all done!…perfection! A litter of perfection. What? It didn’t “fix” all of the kittens? To make it worse, now there are different things to “fix”. Welcome to the world of breeding.
It’s a blend of science and art with a little luck sprinkled into the mix. It’s a balance of passing on to the litter things that you wish to improve upon from the parents without losing the parents attributes. It’s rewarding and it’s frustrating. It’s breeding.
So what happens when you aren’t achieving what you set out to do? You reevaluate and you try again. After all, even if they aren’t “perfect”, they are “perfectly” sweet RagaMuffins.
Playing Mr. Potato head isn’t for everyone and that’s okay. You do remember where the pieces were stored, don’t you?