Hi, and thanks for checking this site out – I hope you find at least something useful and/or informative. This site is primarily intended for Birman cat owners and would-be Birman cat owners but there will also be material of a generic nature that may be of value to a wider, cat-appreciating audience.

Why Birmans? Well I had a pair of Birmans back in the nineties (when I was still living in Australia) and I have a pair of Birmans now (here in the north of England) so my personal experience with pedigree cats is essentially Birman and I can draw on this experience, and their specific behaviour, in the production of content for the site. I’ve also owned various moggies (getting my first as a 5th birthday present) before ever owning a pedigree cat – and I loved them too.

Whilst I am biased towards the Birman breed, a major consideration for the focus of this site was the ready availability of two suitable (living) “stars”, or models, as the subjects of any photographs or videos (that happen to both be Birman) and the complete absence of any practical alternatives (pedigree or otherwise) that would facilitate a broader “cast”. So it was very much a practical choice rather than one born from any sense of animosity or antipathy towards other cat varieties.

The members of the Birman Club include my Birmans past (Biggles and Baldrick), present (Baz and Exo) and future (???).

Why am I doing this? Well, there’s a number of reasons. The main reason, and the one that got me thinking seriously about the idea in the first place, was born of nostalgia – basically I was looking at some old photographs (my ex moggies and first pair of Birmans pre-date digital camera and video) and lamenting that I had so few pictures of them (particularly when they were kittens and changing so quickly). The site would provide both a display vehicle and motivation to take regular pictures (and video?) – a living, pictorial history that I (and others) can appreciate before nostalgia and instead of regrets.

Secondly, if I was going to go to the trouble of setting up a website or blog and put it out in the public arena, then I thought it would be a good idea to make it interesting and useful to a wider audience rather than just being a personal, insular and essentially irrelevant occupier of virtual real estate. So this broadened the scope of the initial idea.

Lastly, there is a financial aspect – not that I expect this site (or my cats) to make me money – particularly as it applies to taxation (specifically, tax deductions). Basically the question is: are there legitimate and legal means of offsetting (subsidising) the costs of pet ownership?

So it is a bit of an experiment.

Any and all other “reasons”, ideas and justifications came after I’d already decided to build the site (i.e. just extra psychological assurance that this is a worthwhile activity ) – so I haven’t listed them here but are all essentially along the lines that I might learn something worthwhile in the process.

Ross