Judge Profile

Margaret Harris

My love of Cats in general and Siamese in particular started as a small child on my parents farm, when they brought a pair of Siamese, which must have been some of the earliest Siamese in Canterbury.
I did not actually apply for the Iluka Prefix until the 1970’s, by which time I had already been showing Pets for several years. I decided that I liked what I saw and would like to go further, so with Diane Burke (Courtenay) as my Mentor and Edna Hunt (Jabula), providing me with English breeding stock, I started with some of the best Siamese lines available at the time.

In the early 1990’s I imported Watarun Iluka Dionysus (Noddy) who along with Watirah Tall n Elegant (Elle), became my new foundation stock. These two set their mark on the Siamese and Oriental scene at this time and they can be traced back through many of the current Siamese and Oriental lines today.

With my daughter Charlotte, I digressed into breeding Burmese. We had a lot of success under the Tartarus Prefix and I was a joint holder of the Chuntao (Pete & Ann Skilling) Prefix and the beautiful Cream Burmese when they first went to England. We have exported Iluka, Tartarus and Chuntao kittens too many places around the world.
During the next 10 years I also fell in love with a Russian gentleman or two and imported several girls and boys in from Australia working with Jo Millar & Sheila Bonham to increase the gene pool. We have some very good Russian in the South Island now thanks to hard work by a dedicated group of Breeders.

Most recently I found that an Oriental White PR girl I had, carried the longhair gene and so I did a mating to a Balinese. Several litters later we have increased the Balinese and Javanese gene pool both here in NZ and Australia. One of those exported to Aust., has gone best Kitten for the year.

I have also shown Exotic de-sexed kittens from the Riverain & Alamo Prefix’s, to the point of getting kitten of the year with them on separate occasions.

I am now a Senior Shorthair Judge and are currently doing my Longhair Judges training. Currently I also hold the position of President of the Alpine Shorthair Cat Club. This Club has done the 8 ring All Breeds ANZAC show and more recently the Pet Expo show so now it is time to remember that I have a wonderful husband, David, 2 children Charlotte and John and 4 lovely grandchildren.