Why Bombays?
Our journey with the Bombay cat breed began with a book – Legacy of the Cat, 2nd Edition, by Gloria Stephens. Our son, Grant, was three-years-old and was fascinated with this book. On its cover was a photo of a Bombay. It wasn't long before the book automatically cracked open to pages 62-63 with a sub-title of: The Bombay is the sleek Black Panther of the cat fancy.
For five years, Grant kept asking us when he could get a Bombay kitten. It wasn't going to happenas long as we still had our elderly shelter tabby cat, Kita. Kita truly was MY cat as I had her 8 1/2 years before we married, and she only liked me. Kita wanted nothing to do with my husband and would attack his legs every time he walked by her. She also was not interested in other people, and especially not other cats – as I soon found out after I got another cat (so she wouldn't be lonely) and ended up in the emergency room because of her mis-directed aggression towards me! (I have a photo of Kita to include with the story).
For five years, Grant kept asking us when he could get a Bombay kitten. It wasn't going to happenas long as we still had our elderly shelter tabby cat, Kita. Kita truly was MY cat as I had her 8 1/2 years before we married, and she only liked me. Kita wanted nothing to do with my husband and would attack his legs every time he walked by her. She also was not interested in other people, and especially not other cats – as I soon found out after I got another cat (so she wouldn't be lonely) and ended up in the emergency room because of her mis-directed aggression towards me! (I have a photo of Kita to include with the story).
Kita
But in March 2011, Kita became very ill and crossed the Rainbow Bridge on March 7, 2011 at age 16 1/2. In the meantime, we'd had another son, Blake, so now BOTH boys wanted a Bombay cat. Every day they would ask, "When can we get a Bombay kitten?" So I thoroughly researched different breeds of cats and learned the Bombay "purrsonality" sounded perfect for our family.
Trying to locate Bombay breeders on the Internet was no easy task as they are relatively rare. I finally found one in the Midwest in southern Iowa (we are in Minnesota). I contacted Troy Weier of Yash Bombay and Burmese who was most helpful and told us he would put us on a waiting list for a Bombay kitten, but that it could be quite awhile. He informed us that he would be at a CFA cat show in St. Paul in a couple of weeks, so we decided to check out his cats. We were sold the minute Troy put one of his cats in our son Grant's arms and he immediately relaxed and was so content as he held and petted a beautiful Bombay girl. (This was a big deal to us because Grant is on the Autism spectrum and has severe anxiety issues). I immediately wrote out a check for a deposit on a Bombay kitten.
The rest, as they say, is history. We got Cleo a couple of months later and have been in love with Bombays ever since - to the point that we began showing her and are now breeding these lovely felines! Cleo became like a therapy cat for Grant, and has become a Triple Grand Champion cat in TICA and "Best Friend" to our son Grant as noted in this article published in our local paper: "Best Cat and Grant's Best Friend". Cleo was also named Best Bombay in TICA's Great Lake's region in 2011-2012.
The name Great Black Bombays is derived from our two boys names (Grant and Blake) with just a letter different in each. Raising Bombays is truly a family affair and our kittens are socialized with the boys as well as our pet rabbit, Pumpkin!
Trying to locate Bombay breeders on the Internet was no easy task as they are relatively rare. I finally found one in the Midwest in southern Iowa (we are in Minnesota). I contacted Troy Weier of Yash Bombay and Burmese who was most helpful and told us he would put us on a waiting list for a Bombay kitten, but that it could be quite awhile. He informed us that he would be at a CFA cat show in St. Paul in a couple of weeks, so we decided to check out his cats. We were sold the minute Troy put one of his cats in our son Grant's arms and he immediately relaxed and was so content as he held and petted a beautiful Bombay girl. (This was a big deal to us because Grant is on the Autism spectrum and has severe anxiety issues). I immediately wrote out a check for a deposit on a Bombay kitten.
The rest, as they say, is history. We got Cleo a couple of months later and have been in love with Bombays ever since - to the point that we began showing her and are now breeding these lovely felines! Cleo became like a therapy cat for Grant, and has become a Triple Grand Champion cat in TICA and "Best Friend" to our son Grant as noted in this article published in our local paper: "Best Cat and Grant's Best Friend". Cleo was also named Best Bombay in TICA's Great Lake's region in 2011-2012.
The name Great Black Bombays is derived from our two boys names (Grant and Blake) with just a letter different in each. Raising Bombays is truly a family affair and our kittens are socialized with the boys as well as our pet rabbit, Pumpkin!
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