My name is Vanessa and I live in Devon with my Kids, my Cats and my wonderful Husband. We are located just a few miles from the coast, the moors, City Center and we are just a hop, skip and jump away from Cornwall.

About 6 years ago my daughter asked for a cat - and a few months and lot of keeping on from her later we bought our first kitten. She was a beautiful tortie and white Turkish Van x Siamese mischief maker. We called her Willow and she took over our lives - unfortunately our beloved Willow was killed by a car just 11 weeks after she had a litter of kitties. We were devastated at the loss but her spirit lives on in her son, Mister Moose. 

Moose now rules our house just like his mum used to. He is a huge white boy with auburn pointing and huge Sapphire blue eyes. The photo on the right is Moose sat on our bird table pretending to be a peanut. He may be beautiful, but he has never been the brightest of the bunch!

I loved the Turkish Van Characteristics I saw in Willow and still see in Moose and a year later our 1st pedigree Turkish Van Girl came to live with us.

Klassyklogs Kaliko came to us at 16 weeks old from Buckinghamshire (KLASSYKLOGS) and took over. Kaliko was a star in the show ring as a kitten and won best of breed at every show we entered her in, including the Supreme Show at the NEC Birmingham in 2004. Unfortunately as soon as she was old enough to be entered into the adult classes she started to object and it soon became evident that Kaliko was not enjoying the life of a show cat - so she retired and had a family of her own.

In June 2005 Kaliko had a litter of 4 beautiful female kittens.

They were named Vanjmali Callistemon (Mango), Vanjmali Capsicum (Chilli), Vanjmali Kalmia (Mimi) and Vanjmali Sambucca (Sammi-Doodles).

Mango and Chilli now live in Bristol and Mimi lives in Falmouth with wonderful new families.

Sammi was the last of Kaliko's kittens to find her new home  and has grown into a beautiful adult cat. I expected that  she would stay with us but she has now found a wonderful home to share with  another cat and   also a dog to call her own,  plus 2 humans to pamper her and to attend to her every whim.

She is a typical Turkish Van and readily exhibits all of their behavior traits. She adores water and rushes to join us in the bathroom, frequently helping out in the shower, not to mention playing with the bubbles in the children's bath.

Sammi also enjoys a good old fashioned game of fetch. She will bring you her favorite toy and drop it at your feet (usually a woolly sausage or a furry toy mouse) - then it is your turn to throw it - this can go on for ages and normally we tire of the game long before she does.

In June 2006 we were joined by a Classic Turkish Female Kitten, Yenicizgi Vanjmali Aurora. (YENICIZGI)

Aurora was a very confident and tenacious little madam who took absolutely no notice of the disapproving signals given out by the other members of our existing cat family. She pushed her way into the affection of all that live here with the motto ' gotta love me'. Absolutely nothing phased her even Kaliko was a push over to this little fire ball.

Aurora was taken to about 4 shows as a kitten and behaved really well - she has won her open class and best of breed in all 4 of the shows she was entered in - including the Supreme show held at the NEC last November (2006).

She is just over a year old now and i have taken her to two shows as an adult - She did well at the 1st, winning her first Challenge Certificate (CC). She was deprived of the best of breed however, this went to a beautiful young stud boy called Zurvan.

A year old is a difficult age for a turk - no longer considered a kitten but very slow to mature this breed is not at its best when at this immature age - either in looks or mentality! Their hormones start raging and their bodies and brains seem slow to catch up.

It takes 3 - 5 years for a Turk to fully mature and the boys seem to get there physically, way before the girls. 

 This is Zurvan, owned by Miss Marianne Upham, he was approx a year old when the photo on the right was taken and about 18 to 20 months old when the bottom photo was taken.

 The difference in appearance is plain to see. He still has a long way to go yet before he is fully mature but he is already very beautiful.

Hopefully later on this year  I will be able to take  madam Aurora up to Somerset for a little holiday to stay with Zurvan. 

If we are lucky, 9 - 10 weeks later there will be another litter of classic Turkish kittens in the world waiting to go to their new homes. 

If you have any queries, questions or comments regarding this wonderful breed (or any other cat issues) then i will be happy hear from you.

My email address is

                    holtvanessa@ymail.com

Phone Vanessa: 01752 923905

Thanks for your visit.