Hi all.
Over the years our breeders’ community has put together a lot of resources for new breeders and each other. Some of these are 3rd party websites and some of these are threads here on the forum full of advice. The forum itself is, of course, the main resource, and many of us come here every day. After spending too much time clicking around and digging and such, I have put together my own little website which I have named “The Pawsable Traits Reference”.
It is here:
The Pawsable Traits Reference
It is intended to be a one-page one-click consolidation site to get you where you want to go.
It also has several other pages: The Library Non-Fiction and the Library Fiction.
The Library Non-Fiction has links to some of the most referenced threads and articles that have been written by various breeders on breeding topics. If you think I have left something out - and I’m sure there’s more out there - just let me know and I can add to the list.
The Library Fiction is for those of you who want to waste some time. It has some poetry and short stories about cats which are in the public domain. Other worthy fiction works still under copyright aren’t included though I may add some links to them or create a bibliography. If you have suggestions let me know. I am Very Sorry that I can’t just put
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot on there, but it is still under copyright.
I want to stress that in no way is this page meant to pull anyone away from the forum. Indeed, I have made sure that a large percentage of the links come back to the forum. Its purpose is to provide ease of use to get to places like the Charts, the Build-A-Cat, the Auction calendar, Torgon’s and some other sites.
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I need to say a few words about the Dominance Charts.
As many of you know, I’ve worked with the Saga Charts and at the Saga Project as a breeder and pedigree vetter. Many of you have no doubt noticed that for about 2 years now the Saga Charts have been behind, sometimes months behind. The situation got better when BreeAnn (Brunabug Nightfire) took up the job of chart maintenance, but she has now left to deal with Real Life issues. The Saga Charts are google docs which are still owned by Saga Felix. There is no one currently active in breeding and testing kittycats who has permission to edit and update the charts. They are not being updated.
When Saga started to slow down some years ago, KittyCats Proofs jumped into the breach, as a forum-based alternative. Arwen Swordthain and Reven Rosca have kept the KittyCats Proofs updated on a near daily basis.
At this point, everyone should be using the KittyCats Proofs charts.
So, if you go to the Pawsable Traits site you will see that the very first two links are to Saga and to KittyProofs. Why did I do this? Why did I include a Saga link?
1. Respect. Saga Felix created a legacy of testing and iron-clad protocols that has helped breeders for years. As the Saga charts become more outdated, I may indeed drop the link. Please note that the Library Non-Fiction contains links to Saga’s lectures on breeding, and also to two lectures written by Wendi Lavendel and Charles Courtois on how to know if you’ve got a proof.
2. It would have looked suspicious if I’d not included it. I think there would have been drama and perhaps the public perception that there was competition between the two charts. This is not true. In fact, for the past year at least, a lot of the pedigree vetting for Saga has come from Arwen and Reven at KittyProofs (also Kayla Woodrunner).
3. Familiarity. People know the name “Saga”. It trips easily off the tongue and it is the chart that people most often look at. I didn’t want people to get confused if this Most Familiar resource wasn’t included. This has to change. People need to be able to look at Saga, see that updates aren’t listed and then be able to push the next link to KittyProofs.
Anyway, I do hope that you’ll check out the Pawsable Traits Reference. I hope you find it useful.