The cattery was established by my husband Frank and me with The Cat Fancier’s Association (CFA) in 1999. I am a member of the Tonkinese Breed Association, and the Tonkinese CFA Breed Council. I also belong to the newly organized Almost Heaven Cat Club. We are, of course, breeding and showing Tonkinese, but we have also bred Bombays.

Frank and I moved from the suburbs to the eighteenth-century farm we call Spotted Acres in 1994. We wanted to be more closely in touch with nature, and we could hardly have chosen a better place than this site in the West Virginia hills. We razed the old farmhouse and built a new home set farther back from the one-lane road that leads to the outside world. We also built three ponds to attract wildlife. I was breeding and showing Quarter Horses, but we named the farm after our Appaloosas.