Preface to the French Edition

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.

Gisele Barney