Hello, my name is John H. de Vries and I’m based in a village close to Rotterdam. I’d like to welcome you to my website and I hope you will take some time to browse my Exhibition British Shorthair cats.  My interest in the hobby started in 1993; from then until the present time I’ve been a member of the dutch Neocat society cat club. I will go more in-depth about my lifetime in this wonderful hobby, which you shall see as you progress through my site.
I bought 2 kittens which were advertised in the local paper, this was my start in this great hobby.
I then visited a few local breeders to see how they kept their cats and asked as many questions as possible about breeding, etc. I eventually bought a better cat from cattery van Ladies Home, who I knew well at the time. She helped me a great deal in those early days with a female kitten with the name Ginger and put me on the correct road.
At shows I met other fanciers who gave me a warm welcome and invited me to see their cats . This I enjoyed and I acquired knowledge from them and through the meetings I attended.
I visited all the shows in a fifty mile radius, during which I made a mental note of the winners and what type of cats the judges were going for. I read a few cat publications and once again attained knowledge from the articles contained within.
I joined the Neocat cat club in 1993 and later on several specialist British Shorthair clubs, such as Mundikat(I ceased membership of specialist clubs in February 2008, but remain a member of Neocat ). From 1973 I visited England on a weekly or monthly basis, looking for nice clocks (I am a clockmaker by the way)and later, in 1979, visited some good breeders of Budgerigars and nearly 20 years after that I went over to look around for good British Shorthair cat breeders and one stood out , this was the Coppins cattery with their super cats.
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Coppins Corker,
photo taken in the garden of Gill Howe, Coppins cattery
(photo taken in 1999) |
The owner was Gill Howe whom I established a great friendship with and, during those years, she took me under her wing, teaching me how to breed these super cats. Gill helped me so much with a good young stud boy of the name Coppins Cleverclogs - I called him Clever - this put me on the winning road to success, after which, I didn’t look back. I used him for my stock with great success. I showed at many of the smaller shows to begin with and then onto the bigger ones such as Area shows, Championship shows and of course the Neocat club show, what I think of as the Cup Final, being the biggest show on the continent with a entry of more than 1000 cats where I have been very successful over the years.
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Me with ( Biggles ) Abramalyn High Flyer,
photo taken by Gill Howe ( taken in 1999 ) |
My greatest win at this show was in 2004 , when I staged the BIV - BIS - BOB , with a powerful stud boy "Coppins Clever's Son of The Lion KIng ". Again, in 2007, I attained BIV - BIS - BOB with a young female "Roxènn van Black Lake " who was a daughter of my blue stud Coppin. In January 2008 I showed a kitten with the name "Something of The Lion King "in the 3-6 months class and again achieved BIV - BIS. I’ve won many BOB Cups over the years and twice the BOA.
In 2006 I had the great help of my good friend Denise Conway ( www.pampurred.co.uk ), who was also a very good friend of the late Gill Howe - Denise lives in England and her prefix is "Pampurred ".
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Coppins Chanel ( blue ) too dark in the photo ( taken in 1998 ) |
After my stud Coppin died she helped me out with a very young blue boy with the name Pampurred the lion king. At the time, he was only 16 weeks old and looked already very promising. It was very difficult to find a name for him until my good friend from England "Geoff Capes " world strongest man in 1983 and '85 and top breeder of the finest Recessive Pieds Budgies in the world said "John give him my name"...... I showed him once in the 3-6 months class, when he had already attained a weight of nearly 5 Kg and was BIS. After this he grew and grew and at present he is so big and heavy that I can't show him any longer, although I did show him once again in January 2008 and to be honest he took some stopping - nobody had seen such a big 20 months old British Shorthair stud with such a big head in their lives.
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Coppins Chanel ( blue ) too dark in the photo ( taken in 1998 ) |
He is also the father of Something of The Lion King.
Looking back, I have enjoyed this Great Hobby and after 15 years in the cat hobby ( with this year 40 years experience in breeding ), I hope to have a few more years before I call it a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!
John H. de Vries
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