The Secrets of the Sacred Cat of Burma: Birman History

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Published by LitPrime Solutions 01/30/2023

ISBN: 979-8-88703-142-2(sc)

ISBN: 979-8-88703-143-9(hc)

ISBN: 979-8-88703-144-6(e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023900023

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Contents

Preface to the English edition

Preface

CHAPTER 1

The Mystery of the Origin

1925-1943: From Poupee de Madalpour to Orloff de Kaabaa

Documents:

The Birman Cat, A Sacred Animal

Dream and Reality

The Story of Sinh, The Sacred Cat

CHAPTER 2

The Revival of the Sacred Cat of Burma

Cosima, Dorothee, Fantine, Eve and others

Documents:

Genealogy of Cosima Des Muses

Extracts From the Diaries of Madeleine Boyer

CHAPTER 3

A Difficult Breed

CHAPTER 4

The Sacred Cat of Burma Abroad

Documents:

Genealogy of Korrigan and Olympio

First cats exported to the United States and Germany

first cats Exported to England and Holland

CHAPTER 5

On Personality and Character

CHAPTER 6

The Story of Princesse

The Story of Jessy

The Story of Balzac

CHAPTER 7

Breed Standards and Showing

Documents:

Standard of the Sacred Cat Of Burma

(FIFe)

The Certificates of the Champions

A Brief History of Cat Shows in France

CHAPTER 8

Simplified Genetics of the Sacred Cat of Burma

The Principle Cat Genes

ADDENDUM

Clubs for the Birman Around the World

Appendices

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

List of Illustrations

Pat Beck painted this beautiful picture in 1980

Preface to the English edition

I had always wanted to know exactly what was said during that conversation between Simone Poirier and Gisele Barnay. The story of the Birman is so fascinating I wanted to share it with others so I set out on a journey to find the owner of the book and ask them to please print this English version or allow me to have an English reprint produced. In the process I was lucky to find Arlette Poirier, Simone’s daughter and I was fortunate that she helped me in my quest. I would also like to thank others who have given their time and effort too:

Julie Collin President of the Sacred Cat of Burma Fanciers in America for allowing me to use photographs from the Club archives. Linda and Mevin Gregory, Betty Brown, Joyce Worth, Mathilde Bonetti, Roberta Bianchi, Claire Anne Fraii, Vivian Creasey-Smith author of ‘The Birman Cat World Wide’. Also all those friends round the world, who have encouraged me to pursue the ambition to see this English Edition in print.

A special big thank you to: Michelle and her husband Clive for all their hard work translating the book.

I have selected a slightly different lay out for this book but where changes have taken place there are notes. I have also taken the advantage of inserting pictures of as many named cats as I could find many of which did not appear in the original book.

Alwyn Hill

The Secrets of The Sacred Cat Of Burma

Preface

The Idea had been in the air for many years. There are those sentences, dropped casually into conversation, which one forgets and which come up again another day, one doesn’t know how. Without you knowing it, the idea has matured and demands attention. Those little words How about we write a book together? were said. When? We’ve forgotten. It was a very long time ago.

I met Simone Poirier for the first time in 1972. She was one of those great ladies of the feline fancy. She was a specialist in Birman cats and assistant to Marguerite Ravel, the General Secretary of the Paris Cat Club since 1934. I was the Chief Editor of La Vie des Betes (The Life of Animals) and in order to do a good job, it was necessary to speak to the best person. I was therefore naturally pointed in the direction of Simone Poirier-who had already written in the magazine herself-for my first paper on The Sacred Cat of Burma. A magazine article, even a specialised one, is not able to say everything. It had to be deleted, shortened, condensed: in brief, left wanting more. It was perhaps during this period or a little later that one of us said for the first time those famous little words, which were to launch us on the Birman trail.

Fifteen years have passed and the book is here at last! God knows we have faced problems: being given a lead only to then take a backward step, because the first breeders of Birman cats worked jealously to guard their secrets of selection in the same way that a great chef, who is cautious, does not hand out his recipes. The essence, the knack and that little extra which makes their dish matchless, is their secret, their creation and so in certain situations, we had to put forward the most plausible hypotheses, based on one or other of the authentic documents from the Twenties and Thirties. The eyes of the Birman-blue like azure stone, the lapis-lazuli, the silky coat of the Birman-sheer poetry, the white gloves of the Birman-a distinctly important mark, which made him from the beginning a little god, destined to be a legend.

The first breeders had imagination and as Marcel Adams would have said, a pretty bit of fluff. Their Birman cats deserve this lyricism: there was no question of forgetting them in this book. Moreover, there are comments made by a Birman specialist, a zoologist and a geneticist.

The second and third chapters are of great importance. Simone Poirier, either more generous or more modern than her predecessors, confides her secrets of selection, because she has loved and bred this superb cat too long to suffer the stupid things said about and done to the breed. She says I think that what I have achieved with the breed has been destroyed over the last few years We go back to the post-war years, when Simone Poirier became, in her turn, fascinated by the Birman cat, and decided to return it to its past glory. The breeding cats of her stable were the descendants of three well-known Birmans Orloff: born in 1943 and his daughters Xenia and Xanthippe de Kaabaa and they came from prestigious lines: Kaabaa from Mlle Boyer and Madalpour, from Mme Chaumont-Doisy, who had recovered the original suffix of the Birman cat.

I asked questions tirelessly, Simone Poirier replied patiently and sometimes she said, You remind me of inspector Colombo! Simone has so many stories that I found it was not possible to leave anything uncovered. I was merciless besides, the passion for this cat is infectious: Onyx, a blue Birman, has shared my life for the last twelve years…I have had time to observe him, but my observations have been on a single subject, but no one bothers with the observations of breeders. Which brings us completely naturally to speak about genetics; this is an era that cannot ignore the monumental discovery of the botanist Gregor Mendal. There will be no scientific discussion in this book, which is aimed at all Birman cat-lovers. There will only be a short account of the difficulties with their breeding, so you will love them more.

Their pretty white gloves, which give them the elegance of a ballet dancer, what a problem they are! They must maintain the standard of mittens or slippers, never to become long gloves or socks above all they must not disappear! And so I thought, when cuddling Onyx, Vichnou or Poupee, about the concerns of the breeder at the birth of a kitten: has he or has he not got good regular gloves? Because the kittens are born white, one must wait many days and have a perfectly trained eye to detect the gloves on a scarcely coloured paw.

In short, every cat with a superb cream ruff, masked in seal or blue and gloved in white, possesses a genotype inherited from its ancestors. The genotype cannot be forced when introducing another breed, which will bring with it a multicoloured wardrobe. Be careful said Simone Poirier, the creation of new strains, with different colourings, demands a strict breeding program to ensure that the breed is not damaged. On this score she agrees with Marcel Baudoin-Crevoisier, one of the first Birman breeders, the creator of the famous Dieu D’Arakan who was already concerned in 1967 about the vogue in the blue Birman. He had said: The Birman cat is an animal of an almost supernatural beauty. It is a crime of treason to want to change those characteristics!" What would he have said when faced with the latest creations, red and tortoiseshell Birmans recognised by the International Cat Federation?

A French cat, the seal Birman wants to maintain its French Quality and yet the same cat carries the English title seal point on its identity card-sorry, its standard-for many years. Today it has made small inroads into all the countries of the world. Each country has its own group protecting the breed, including the United States, where it arrived in 1959. Great Britain followed suit in 1965. Belgium, Switzerland and Italy have adopted and loved this cat since the beginning of the Thirties. It has conquered Europe-Germany, Austria, Holland, Luxembourg, the Scandinavian countries etc. and also Canada, Latin America, Australia and Japan… The breed originated in Asia. Here or there, in the ancient or New World the Birman cat cares not. Dignified, handsome, he holds the look of Poupee de Madalpour, his ancestor, in his fur, whether light or bronzed; he understands all languages; he lets himself be admired and he loves all who love him. No one is insensible to his charm. Simone Poirier said, "Today I received some more letters from people who bought cats from me ten, fifteen, or more, years ago. They send me photos, they tell me about the death of a wonderful Birman who was part of the family.

Birman cat lovers are inexhaustible; they must be allowed to speak. We have found in the personal diaries of Madeleine Boyer, the story of Fly de Kaabaa, the grandfather of Orloff, most of today’s Birmans, are his descendants it is a touching document and unpublished. Unshakeably thoroughbred but playful and cuddly, the Birman tiptoes through the fifth chapter. In passing he comes within a whisker of and seduces a young female, a grand actress who we loved very much, a cat herself: Romy Schneider. It is the story of Balzac, the secret life of a splendid seal point, intertwines with the life of Romy, which was interrupted too early. There is also the story of Jessy, a kitten who fell from the second floor and was seriously injured. She was nursed so well that she became an international champion, faithful all her life…to a common tomcat. Whether moving or amusing, these anecdotes prove that the Birman is full of things to say, just as is Simone Poirier, in whose home so many sacred cats have been born.

The last cat adored by Simone was Semele de Mun Ha, who died in 1986 at the age of seventeen. We find her again with Poupee and Manou de Madalpour, Dieu d’Arakan, Cosima des Muses, Fantine, Namour and Marquis de Crespiere, Ophelie and Olympio, Princesse de Ranchipur, Wladimir de Pouh Milo, Ines de Pagan and others, throughout this book, which is dedicated to them.

Gisele Barnay

CHAPTER 1

The Mystery of the Origin

Gisele Barnay. When did you first hear about the Birman cat?

Simone Poirier. That is a tale in itself. I lost my husband in February 1952. My daughter and I were feeling very alone, and wanted to have a cat, but the breed of cat was very important: a Siamese. I didn’t know where to find one and at the beginning of the summer I was taking a stroll along the banks of the Seine. There are shops selling animals on the embankment, and I saw some poor sad little cats but no Siamese. I returned home. I was living at that time in the seventeenth district of Paris, in Rue Saint-Ferdinand Whilst walking along Rue des Acacias, I went into a dog grooming parlour. I asked the owner if, amongst her clients, she had heard of a breeder of Siamese cats. She replied you should buy a Birman cat. I have seen some at the Cat Club Show-they are superb! and she gave me the address of the Countess of Maubou, who had left her with her card.

GB. Who was the Countess of Maubou?

SP. She was an actress of the Twenties, Yahne Lambray, who had married the Count of Maubou. One day I went to her house, in Rue de Rivoli. I saw three beautiful cats with mid length coats, cream with brown marking like the Siamese, they had little white slippers on their paws: one male, Agni and two females, Aicha and Addy de Kaabaa. There were many more kittens all seal pointed. The Countess of Maubou had bought them from Mlle Boyer, one of the first Birman breeders. These three cats were the offspring of Xenia and Orloff de Kaabaa, the two descendants from the first Birmans. Orloff survived until the war in 1940.

GB. Was it love at first sight?

SP. Not at all! When I saw the way the Birman cat looked, so profound, with eyes so blue, I was fascinated. However when the Countess told me that a female cost 18,000 francs, I realised their great weakness!

GB. 18,000 francs in 1952 that was a lot! And so?

SP. I was not able to pay that amount. For 6,000 francs Countess of Maubou offered me Yago, a big neutered Siamese who was without a pedigree and Brinbelle; she was a little hybrid female cat. Brinbelle was the daughter of Yago and a seal point Siamese. She had a mid