In the beginning: In July 1987 Howard Webster (Clowntown) wanted to place Dama's great-granddam, BERNADETTE SILVER SARA OF CLOWNTOWN, a fourth generation double descendant of a shaded silver American Shorthair, SI-ABY'S BANDIT OF FOXTAIL, to which Nina had bred her seal point Siamese queen, QUIRE'S GAL-X-C AIKO OF BERNADETTE (Aiko's litter was Nina's second try at breeding shaded silver Oriental Shorthairs; sadly, Nina's first litter of shadeds, and almost all of her other cats, had been lost to FeLV).

Even though Sara, a seal silver lynx point, could be seen from her white undercoat to have inherited the shaded polygenes of her ancestor Bandit, she unfortunately also had the spotted tabby pattern, which Howard (and those before him) had been unable to eliminate. And despite a great deal of research Sara's first litter for Cathy had the same problem. Bred to a Grand Champion blue Oriental Shorthair that appeared to be "clear" (i.e., Aby-patterned), Sara produced an ebony "spotted" smoke boy (CLOWNTOWN DUNCAN IDAHO OF RAKISCATS), a blue silver spotted tabby girl (CLOWNTOWN SILVER DRUSILLA) and a chestnut silver spotted tabby boy.

Parallel development #1: Cathy had made the acquaintance of June Young (Changa), a Scottish Fold breeder who had also purchased a red spotted tabby Oriental Shorthair from the Sandersons. June later acquired a red ticked tabby Oriental Shorthair girl when her owner closed his cattery (a cat which ironically? luckily? Cathy had turned down). According to June, although there was only one survivor (CHANGA MR. TWO) from the first two litters out of SANDERSON'S SUPRA and LUMAX POLLYANNA OF CHANGA, in both litters there had been a surprise, a solid red! When a third litter was born in February 1988, again there was a solid red, a girl. This time the litter was fostered out, with Cathy taking the solid and one of the tabbies. She managed to save both, and the solid red girl became CHANGA DIANA OF RAKISCATS. [Note: a fourth breeding produced a solid cream boy!]

While waiting for Diana to grow up, Sara was bred to June's Mr. Two, a red ticked tabby. We hoped that even if a solid red did not magically appear, at least one of the kittens would be a silver ticked tabby. As luck would have it, both of Sara's silver girls were spotted! The seal silver tortie-lynx point (RAKISCATS SILVER FREDRICA) was sold, but Freddie was later returned when her owners separated, an event which proved to be extremely fortuitous to the continuation of Sara's line, for as it turned out neither Freddie's smoke tortoiseshell sister (RAKISCATS FINTIL) nor Fintil's silver ticked tabby daughter (RAKISCATS WANNA MARCUS) would contribute to that effort.

Parallel development #2: Through the breed club Orientals West, Cathy had become acquainted with Barbara Kuhlins (Pudi Tat), who had silver tabbies and smokes descended from a cameo tabby domestic shorthair. In the fall of 1988, Barbara was exhibiting a chestnut silver ticked tabby Oriental Shorthair boy (PUDI TAT MOONLIT DESERT) that she had originally registered as a shaded silver because as a young kitten he had had unusually light coat color and almost no tabby markings. Although there was nothing in Desi's pedigree to explain his shaded-like appearance (or guarantee that he would pass it on), Cathy had decided that she needed a silver boy and so bought him from Barbara in January 1989.

Putting it all together: So from three cats -- Sara, Diana and Desi -- have come some truly rare and beautiful felines, with the help of Mr. Two and other carefully chosen studs. To our knowledge Sara's descendants are the only silver Orientals with an unbroken silver line of descent from shaded silver American Shorthairs, and the only ones carrying the ASH/Persian shaded polygenes. In addition, Diana and Desi's son Cammie (RAKISCATS OTHEYM) was the first shaded cameo Oriental Shorthair proven to be agouti, i.e., a red silver (AaIiOY), and he has produced several shadeds, including the blue-cream silver (RAKISCATS OCTAVIA), lavender-cream silver (RAKISCATS OCRESIA) and lavender silver (RAKISCATS ORLOP) mentioned above, as well as a tortoiseshell silver (RAKISCATS BELLONDA), a chestnut-tortie silver (RAKISCATS PERIZADA) and a red silver (CLOWNTOWN'S IRISH EYES). Cammie is also the grandsire of another red silver (RAKISCATS GURNEY HALLECK) and an ebony silver (RAKISCATS LADY MUERTANA).

While with each generation we move further away from Sara's American Shorthair ancestors and improve type and health (until recently the line was very susceptible to FIP), the preservation and enhancement of the shaded polygenes has and will continue to take top priority -- we have yet to produce a shaded silver "grand" -- and Sara has only three Grand Champion descendants, brothers RAKISCATS ROITIRO and RAKISCATS BARON REDMOND BAGRATONI, and RAKISCATS KOLINAR OF FOXGLEN; and one Grand Premier, her great-great-great-granddaughter RAKISCATS GIGI OF PUDI TAT. Cammie's descendants have done much better with Grand Champions RAKISCATS LADY MUERTANA, RAKISCATS SAM BASS OF FOXGLEN and CLOWNTOWN'S GAVIN; Grand Premier, Regional Winner RAKISCATS ZATHRAS; and Double Grand Champion RAKISCATS GURNEY HALLECK.