My name is Anna Källström and is the owner of the breeder name S*Skimmerdal's.
My history with the fantastic breed Abyssinians began in 1996 when I bought my first Abyssinian from Kristin Stenmark (Nekayahs). I also bought a house cat to keep eachother company during working hours. After a couple of months I meet a man and we moved in together and I became pregnant with my daughter Sandra. During the pregnacy my betrothed discovers his very allergic to cats. I had to chooce. It was with a broken heart I sold Emil (Nekayahs Eshu Enkidu) to a new family. The years went by and we broke up and since I became a single mum I soon after met up with Kristin again at a Cat Show here in Umeå.
She was thinking of importing a male from Finland and was looking for a home to him. I just had to say YES. He (FIN*Nebuankhet Cordia Coeruleus) moved in and became father to two litters and with that also became the founder of my line of breed. In his last litter I found the girl with "it". Nekayahs Petita Pimpinella is her hole name but at home she's Tita. When she became 12 weeks she moved in with us and her dad was really exited. From being alone for more the half a year he had company.
Now I was looking for a male suited for Tita when Kristin again came with the idea of importing one. This time she and another breeder Agnetha Olsson (S*GoodNews) where to import another male from Finland (FIN*Proxima Herschel) know at home as Bamse. I said yes to also giving him a home here and he moved in the beginning of 2005.
Spring 2005 I meet my future husband over the internet. He (Michael Holmlund) was a breeder of Nowegien Forestcat during the 80´s and 90´s but have put his breeding on hold for several years and we, because we had so much in common, started dating.
In spring 2006 I recieved my breeders licence and our first litter arrived in fall 2006 and we had the great pleasure of having three of the four basic colours and they became the G-litter. Mother to the litter is Tita and father Bamse. It was a very exiting time for me and all went well. We also had the great pleasure of being able to show them at Björkstakattens Cat Show and the litter got to be Best in Show and also Golden Star became Best in Show kitten. It was really a great opertunity to hear what the judges had to say about all four. Many good advices to bring with us to the coming litters.
During summer 2006 we made a huge house renovation and installed new heating solution from mountain and floorheating in the hole house. It was a big job but we haven't regreated it one minute. Although not all is finished yet because if you renovated one thing you see other things that also needs to be done. We take step after step and hopefully most of it is complete in 2010.
Time went by and Bamse became neutered in december 2006 after having several litters and we looked for another male to Titas coming litter. I wanted to use a male that was fawncoloured and I found (N)Hakrilas Aros. A really good looking male and with the quality I was looking for. Tita went for a trip to Norway but refused to get in heat and we decided to bring Aros to our home instead. It was the right decision. They mated and Skimmerdal's A-litter (A after Aros) saw the light in September 2007. Three kittens, 2 fawn and 1 sorrel. Soon we decided to keep 1 fawn Amira in the cattery and that have been a very good decision. She has attended many cat Show as kitten/junior with fablous result. Fawn is a very difficult colour and she has a marvelous ground colour with really good ticking as well. Thank you Toril Kemmervik for letting me use Aros. After that Toril and Halvard has been our friends and we meet as often as possible. They stay with us when showing their cats here in northern Sweden and we stay with them when we show our cats in Trondheim.
During 2007 we also got married on the famous date 7 of july (070707) and we also thought of importing our own male for the first time. I looked for breeders from Norway and came across the Breeder Ingave's. They had a litter of ruddy babies and I fell for Ingave's Knerten, a kitten with large ears and very short coat. We decided to buy him and so he moved in fall 2007. Thank you Inger and Kåre Nave for letting my buy this wonderful male.
Now we decied that the number was reached for Abyssinians in the house hold but my husband Michael still having a crush on semi long haired cats we talked about having one only for him. During a Cat Show in the beginning of summer 2008 we meet Marika Olofsson (a realative of mine) and she had a Maine Coon that she was searching for a home that was intrested in showing him at Cat Shows. So we met him and we said both wow. He was so gorgeous that we was really taken. He moved in and have been a wonderful complement to our Abyssinians.
So in winter 2008 the most wanted litter with Amira as mother and Knerten as father arrived after a summer/fall with alot of problems. Tita that we hope to be a mother to Knertens first litter had one miscarrige and a second misshappen with only one kitten that didn't survive. According to the vet the kitten had pneumonia and died because of that. It happens sometimes but we were really sad and upset. The kitten arrive through Caesarean section and at the same time we let the vet neuter Tita. We didn't want her to go through this again.
Amira and Knertens litter got names with the F-letter. Three ruddy charming kittens, 2 boys and one girl. The girl, Felicia, we placed in foster home. After that he and Amira got a second litter. This time it was also three but 2 girls and one boy instead. Knerten also became father to two other litters outside my cattery and in March 2010 he became neutered for real after trying the chemical castration chip that didn't work out to 100% for him because he had been fertile for so long but we could see big changes both in mood and in urine markings.
On Christmas eve 2009 our Felicia at the time living in foster home delivered four beautiful kittens after being mated with Aucuapria's Charles Roos, JW (Junior winner). A wonderful sorrel/red male. Unfortantly Felicia got so insecure that she attacked everything that moved and in beginning of 2010 we went and picked her up and the kittens back to our home. It took a couple of weeks before Felicia became the Aby we knew from the time she was a kitten and her kittens became the litter that loved humans above all. At the moment we have Pike (sorrel/red) looking for his own loving home. If you are intrested in having your very own Aby kitten let me know. Pearl will stay with us and become our future breeding queen if mother furtune is with us. She has such a wonderful short profile which we hope she can bring down to her kittens. She has some markings on her front legs but our hopes is that these will be less when she colours up.
During summer 2010 both Bamse and Tita moved to Luleå after a long times problems with to many cats and they can be everything but friendly to eachother if it gets to crowded with very many dominate cats. Tita was a tender soul so she got to be the picked on and Bamse couldn't stand the fact that Knerten was around. Eventhough both was neutered it didn't get better.
Our plans is to mate Amira with a really warm ruddy boy in autumn/winter 2010/2011 and perhaps Felicia as well...we'll see.
Goals:
Our goals are many but first and formost is to breed healthy, alert and very social Abykittens in home environment with the typical Aby look. They are brought up with much love and care and have access to the hole house.
We will try to improve the Aby breed in the northern part of Sweden with very short hair, better colours without markings, black boots, big well set ears with hopefully on day ear tufs and they shouldn't be too elegant. Today many Abyssinans have to spinky legs of my opinion. Abyssinians is to be a "wild" breed and therefor need strong legs but of course they can be high on the legs anyway and still have more stamina.