Our Philosophy

We at Pendraig Siberians are breeding for the whole cat; combining the ultimate in genetic diversity, health, longevity, temperament, type and beauty.  Our cats represent the best that Siberian cats have to offer because we always keep these goals in mind.  We do not breed as a hobby, we do not breed merely to produce show cats to win, and we do not breed to make a buck. We breed because we love these animals, we love the breed and we want to preserve and protect it with each step we take.  Only by combining the best of everything can we achieve a whole Siberian cat worthy of the Pendraig name.

Natural Rearing

Our over-riding and long term philosophy is that of true health and well-being.  By true health we mean a cat that is free of all chronic diseases, has a healthy and functioning immune system, an even and sweet temperament free of emotional disorders and has promise of a vastly expanded life span.

Chronic Disease 

Chronic disease in cats, as well as other pets and humans, is becoming something that is accepted and expected.  This is truly sad as this was not the case 50 or more years ago.  Partly to blame is the over-use of vaccinations, many of which contain harmful substances such as formaldehyde and mercury at levels 39 times the maximum dose the EPA recommends for safety.  Also to blame is over-reliance on toxic pharmaceuticals that do more to suppress the immune system than to support the cat towards a healthy recovery.  And of course the ultimate prevention of chronic disease lies in a nutriment dense and complete diet, not one full of fillers, grains, artificial colors and flavorings and dangerous preservatives.  Through diet and natural health care we strive to prevent chronic disease from cropping up in our lines and for those who continue our Ideal Diet & Health Care plan we offer extended health guarantees.

Immune Disorders

Immune disorders are becoming a plague of both man-kind and his pets.  We have to ask ourselves what we are doing wrong as the rates sky-rocket.  Healthy immune systems have no need of drugs or vaccinations to perform their duties.  And in fact many drugs and vaccinations can compromise the immune system and stop it from functioning properly.  They can even cause auto-immune type responses.  "With vaccines that are repeated year after year, the frequency and severity of these side-effects in our pets has increased dramatically. Most of the problems involve the immune system. After all, the immune system is what vaccines are designed to stimulate. But they do so in a very unnatural way that can overwhelm and confuse the immune system." Donna Starita Mehan DVM.  To prevent immune system problems we follow a modified vaccine schedule for kittens going to families who prefer vaccination.  For those families who agree to follow our natural rearing model we will discuss vaccine alternatives.  We raise our cats on the most natural diet we can so that they have the best immune systems to combat illness.

Temperaments

Temperaments can be strongly effected and even altered by illness, in-adequate nutrition and vaccination.  We all know how rotten it feels to be sick and with a chronic illness a cat never gets to experience the freedom and joy of living a healthy life.  Poor nutrition can leave a cat always feeling ill, or sluggish, or tired and depressed.  It is amazing the changes in personality when the Ideal Diet & Care plan is followed.  Cats and Kittens are full of spunk, happiness, energy and life.  They are vibrant and robust and ready to tackle anything the world has to offer.  Vaccinosis, a bad reaction to vaccinations, often has effects that alter the personality and temperament of an animal.  Once sweet and confident these animals can become aggressive, shy to the point of being terrified, and depressed.  The Rabies vaccine is one of the worst offenders in changing personality.  Many vaccinosis reports indicate dogs and cats that have a temperament somewhat resembling rabid animals – nervous/flighty animals with aggression issues.  We cannot avoid the Rabies vaccine, unfortunately, because of legal reasons.  Instead we vaccinate as little as possible and wait until the kitten is more mature before initial vaccination.  We find a vet who will write waivers if the titre levels are high enough.  Some people are blessed to live in an area where indoor only animals need not be vaccinated.

Longevity

Longevity will be a standard in Pendraig cats.  We want it to be the norm for a cat to live well into his late teens or later, and not to have such a brief span with his family as many do now.  By supporting the whole cat through the Ideal Diet & Care plan we can also support those goals towards a healthy and very long lived cat that will grace the show halls and pet homes of those that adore them most.

Quality in Breeding

Gene diversity is our second major concern.  Many purebred pets are suffering from genetic drift and other problems due to closed studbooks and improper and frequent use of line-breeding and inbreeding.  Too many breeders rely on lines that are close to home or closely related to their own.  The long term affects are separated gene pools that have little or no interaction with one another.  All diversity is lost with constant breeding, time and , time again, back into the same lines.

Pendraig Red Sonja SunFire
Exclusive Foundation Line Female
Photo by Dawn Campbell © 2007

To combat this issue we are proud to be one of the only catteries in the United States with completely unused Foundation lines.  Our Foundation Queen, Pendraig Red Sonja SunFire is the daughter of an F1 feral bred Siberian cat that had the proper type and conformation to be judged as a Siberian cat.  Her legacy to the breed will be gene diversity as well as passing along the great looks, amazing temperament and health that her mother passed to her.  It is our hope to find other such quality foundation lines and incorporate them as well.

We are combining these foundation lines with lines of quality and distinction within the USA and abroad, including the Siberian cat’s home country – Russia.  Our lines, through Archibald Boris of Pendraig, already include some of the finest cats in USA Siberian History including the famous Ofelia Romanovna of Starpoint.  Aslan, our current stud, combines our exclusive foundation lines with Starpoint and other American lines. Our new females are either direct Russian imports or from catteries breeding with well-known Russian lines including Black and Chingi-Tura. We are honored to have him contributing to our future.

We are absolutely dedicated to preserving and protecting this breed.  We breed first for health, temperament, conformation and type.  Color is a last priority.  We do not see much logic in color-breeding and indeed a great deal of harm instead.  When breeders focus on color first the other factors get lost in the shuffle and the breed suffers.  You will see that we have cats in many colors in our cattery and in the lines of our cats, but we no longer breed with color-points.

It is our assessment after much research on the subject and on genetics even though color-points have played an integral role in this breed from it’s inception there is too much cross-breeding to mass produce cats of this color because of easy marketing of these flashy colors. Due to the political and social climate in Russia at the time these cats were being recognized as a breed the color-point lines are suspect. Many had to choose between preserving the breed, which to them were nothing more than street cats, or earning a month's pay or more selling one kitten. Brown/black tabbies didn't, and still don't, sell very well so for them it was an easy choice and maybe even a necessary one.   We will visit the color-point (Neva Masquerade) issue in depth in our articles section.

That being said there is nothing wrong with the color itself, just the circumstances that have made it such a common color which it should be exceedingly rare. We may still produce the occasional color-point if our cats are carriers (they will be tested soon).

We will focus instead on our legacy of red and work towards producing more red solids (red self) like our girl Sonja. We are also focused on silver breeding. Aslan is a gorgeous cream silver, almost solid looking like his mom though maybe it is due to being more of a shaded cream than a silver cream tabby.

Our goal, no matter the color, remains the complete cat and the true Siberian cat. A cat with ultimate healthy and the right type for a forest cat being somewhat wild looking and definitely intelligent. We are moving away from the currently popular look in the USA and focusing on traditional lines and the traditional, "forest cat", look.

We are located near Austin, Texas USA