Personal
18th December 2010
First of all I want to wish you all a Very Happy Christmas.
I am sorry but I have not been able to send out a single Christmas card this year and this feels very strange and abnormal. I have not been able to leave the house since my surgery on November 17th. I had carers for 14 days, but they disappeared very quickly when the 14 days were up. I have not heard from Social Services about any further care which I still need. I can not drive my car as yet nor walk very well. Clearing snow within days of the operation did not help, but there was no other option. I had steel pins in my toes as well as screws and a plate, but managed to bend the pins. The surgeon was not pleased. We had over 12 inches of snow in one night. My cat houses are 4 inches of the ground and the doors open outwards. Going out of my back door was impossible. My garage doors are level with the ground and the area between the garage and the Annexe had to be cleared. All food, including mine is in the garage and the kittens were in the Annexe. The garden steps were invisible. I had help with feeding and cleaning the cats, but it was up to me to clear the snow to enable my helpers to get to me and the cats. No carers came at all, they refused to drive nor attend (even if living locally) on Health and Safety Grounds.
My neighbour Roger cleared the snow at the front of the house and the drive, but as well as the rest of the Country we were snowed in for a week. I was glad when all the kittens were collected by their owners on 4th December.

My friends Carol, Lorraine and Jane cleaned and fed the cats and me. Without them I would have found it very hard to survive.
Jane saved my life on the day of my surgery. I was send home from Benenden hospital 4 hours after the surgery. My son Derek picked me up and took me home. Jane had agreed to stay the night with me. At midnight Jane found me collapsed near my bed on the floor. I was unconscious and Jane thought I had a stroke. She called the Ambulance and I was taken to Maidstone Hospital. I was very ill, but it turned out it was a reaction to the pain medication. Without Jane`s help I would have died, as I could not have called for help. When I came out of Hospital Jane stayed with me again for another night. As she works at night in Tesco she did not get paid either, but I could not persuade her to leave me. She is a true friend.
It is snowing hard again now. I fed the cats early at 7am but have now idea how bad things will be again this afternoon. I have lived in the South East since 1959 and we have only had serious snow about 3 times since. I was much younger on those occasions and had Fred to help me. Nows I am stuck and can`t even go and visit Fred until I can drive again. I am hoping to spend Christmas Day with him at the Residential Care Home, weather permitting.

National Cat Club Show
11th December 2010
Again my warmest congratulations to Hazel and Ch Sargenta Silver Zeno and Best Of Breed . He got his final Grand Certificate. This has now given the Title of Grand Premier.Congratulations also again to Helen, who I believe made Hero up to Champion. Hero is Xalvador-Spyda daughter. Helen also won with her kitten Metallicat Silver Eclipse 1st Open and Best of Breed. (She is a Xalvador-Badja daughter). Helen has been very loyal in using my stud boys for many years and I am glad she is having so much success with her breeding.

Supreme Show
20th November 2010
Natalie phoned me from the show as soon as the results were up. Her kitten Tigatails won Open and Best of breed. Again there was quite a large line up of super tabby kittens. My congratulations to all of the owners. I had a hot line to the Supreme all Day which cheered me immensely, as I had my foot Surgery 3 days prior to that and was ill in bed. Ch Sargenta Silver Zeno was awarded his 2nd Grand Premier Certificate. Well done Hazel. He has developed into a beautiful and mature boy, so much like his sire Silvergiltscats Denzel Washington. I am still waiting for the Supreme catalogue. Natalie has bought it for me, but alas the snow has stopped her from visiting since the Supreme.
I believe Helen from Metallicat had a marvellous day with GrCh Metallicat Silver Badja getting the UK Grand certificate. This was her second UK Grand certificate and Badja now holds the title of UK Grand Champion. She has followed in her dads footprints UKGr Ch Sargenta Silver Montaego. Helen had another fabulous win that day with Metallicat Silver Spyda. She was made up to Grand Champion. (Spyda is out of my Orleando and Badja) this was an excellent combination and I often wish that I still had Leo. He is very happy in his retirement. Well done to Helen, you had a fabulous day. It is incredibly hard to make up a UK Grand and yhou need a very special cat to get there!

16th October 2010
Kentish Cat Society Show
This show was held in Maidstone which was very easy for me. I could go home during the day. Sargenta Silver Zabrina was awarded her 1st CC and BoB. Sargenta Silver Angelica came second, but she was a lot younger and still a bit immature, albeit looking very nice. Angelica was awawded a 1st in a side class of ten.

The kittens were a very nice line up of 3 silver tabbies all sired by my Xalvador. The judge stated that she would liked to have had three 1st prizes. I had placed them in the same order as the judge did later on. 1st when to Metallicat Silver Eclipse. Her Dam is Silver Badja who carries the deep shine black contrast passed down from my Montaego. She definitely had the edge. Sargenta Silver Belinda was second with Tigatails Silver Angel 3rd. The Tigatails kittens has since come 1st and BoB at the Supreme in a class of 5. Her mother Sargenta Silver Annelis - silver spotted was awarded her 1st Open CC and BoB on the Day. Natalie was over the Moon.

It was a well run show and there was plenty of space in the Maidstone Hall.

2nd October 2010
Tabby Cat Club Show
I have just heard from Jolanta Axon that Ch Sargenta Silver Yoella - Silver Tabby- was awarded her first Grand Champion Certificate today. She also got Best of Breed, 2 x 1st and 1 x 2nd in her side classes. Well done.
Congratulations to Lizz Benson of Limatz. I hear from Jolanta that Lizz won Best Kitten, Best Neuter and Overall Best British in Show. That is a fantastic achievement in the Special Breed Show for Tabby cats. Well done Lizz and well deserved. You do look after your cats exceptionally well and it shows!

Personal
More bad news on the kitten front. Alison also had a Caesar. This was her first litter and she had no contractions whatsoever. She had two very nice kittens.

My Vet has no explanation as to what is causing this. All cats are fit and healthy and showing no signs of illness, yet Alyssa now only has three kittens remaining out of her 6. I have never had this many Caesars in any decade, let alone in one year. There has to be a reason, especially for the loss of Alyssa`s kittens. Again they showed no sign of illness. They were born normally and were feeding fine, until one after other faded. I put one of her kittens with Abigail and that is fine. Alyssa has two left, one seems alright, the other is fading.

I have had some interesting thoughts on this from a breeder in Canada. Please all breeders out there , if you have lost kittens and don`t know why, research G strep infection.

I remember many years ago when we first found out about neonatal death and the mismatch with blood grouping. We hopefully all of us know more about this now, and are testing our cats for Blood Group. G strep is just another thing we have to be aware of. I am putting all my cats on Antirobe for 3 weeks and will see what happens. No queens will be mated until well into next year, by which time I hopefully have some answers. My Vet is also looking into this as she had never heard of G strep infection. If anyone reading this has any other ideas, please let me know. I had 10 lovely breeding queens at the beginning of this year and now have three. 7 are spayed and have nice homes. It is totally devastating!!!

My cataract Surgery has been cancelled because my eyelids have Blepharitis. Foot Surgery will go ahead as planned on 20th October.

Show News
2nd October 2010
Congratulations to Sargenta Silver Bonnie and Elena Zharova. Bonnie went to her first cat show in Moscow. She won 1st Open, Best Tabby colour in her kitten class and was nominated for Best in Show. Fantastic day for Elena.
I am always very proud when my cats do well abroad. They are flying the flag for the UK.

Congratulations to Sargenta Silver Blanche - silver spotted kitten- and her owners Georgie and Greg. Blanche won 1st Open and came 2nd in a side class of 9 at the Buck`s and Oxon show. Well done!.

Personal News
14th September 2010
Almost another year of breeding my lovelhy Silvers has passed. It has not been going to well for me. The cats were late starting to come into call because of the long and cold winter, hence I have kittens expected late in September. I have had a lot of ill health and struggled all throughout the Summer with very little help. I have had foot surgery on 1st June and 24th August and more will be done on 20th October. I will not be able to walk for 9 weeks after that and it will drive me stir crazy. Rheumatoid Arthritis has done the evil deed and crippled all of my toes. Those which were straightened early in the year already have to be re-done. I have had to walk with steel pins inserted to keep them straight but nothing is healing very well, as I have a very supressed immune system thanks to the Chemo and other evil drugs. Constant pain is my daily experience.
I can finally have cataract surgery at the end of this month or early October. I have waited some years for that, but it could not be done whilst the Rheumatoid Arthritis was affecting the back of the eyes. However the RA is in remission at present, hence all the surgery.

Last Friday I had my 5th Ceasarian for this year. All the cats were spayed at the time and all were young. I have lost Yanisha, Yolanda, Yasmeen, Yuliana, Zandra and Zarah. My Theory is, that all of them had too many kittens on their first litters and their womb could not contract this year. Yuliana carried 15 kittens last year and all were too tiny to survive. Zandra carried 8 last year and the others all had too many as well. These cats are meant to have 3-4 kittens. I have no idea why these large litters are occurring. I mate only over two days and give no more than 4 matings. It seems to make no difference. I have kept a kitten from Yolanda and from Yanisha as they were the last link to my lovely Orleando. that makes 2 kittens to replace 6 lovely queens, but I expect it all has to come to an end sometime.

I am grateful for all the nice owners who still show my cats and very happy for them when the cats and kittens do well.
I am hoping to see some of you at the Maidstone show which will be the last time for me to be able to drive and walk until after Christmas.

Show News
14th August 2010
Congratulations to Sargenta Silver Angelica - Silver Tabby on being awarded her 1st CC and Best of Breed
at the West of England Show. Thank you to Julie Facey her owner for showing her so well. It was a great surprise for me to know that she was taken to a show and had done so well.

Also on the 14th August I had another winner at the Chester and North Wales Show. Elaine Lucas took out Sargenta Silver Barbie. She also won Open 1st and Best of Breed in the kitten class. Well done Elaine.

Show News
17th July 2010

Congratulations to Sargenta Silver Aida on gaining her 2nd CC and Best of Breed at the Gwynneth show. Well done Val for showing her so well.

Aida is from a small line of my cats and still has a lot of growing to do. I am sure she will improve once she has had her first litter of kittens. She must have enough qualities to be awarded her two CC`s & BoB by two top class British judges without all the nasty sniping and criticism by other breeders. Her brother is already a working boy in New York, siring lovely kittens, and I have her sister. The mother of these kittens was Ch Sargenta Silver Una who is litter sister to the mother of the fabulous ImpGrCh Shimmerclaw Moontyger.
It is the sad side of the Cat Fancy that nobody is allowed to enjoy their wins without constant backbiting.

Show News
10th July 2010
Humberside & Lincolnshire Cat Club

Freddy was today awarded his third and final 1st Open , CC and BOB, making him "Champion Sargenta Silver Andreas". My sincere congratulations to his owners Amanda and Barry Leonard and my thanks to them for keeping him in such tip top condition in this very hot weather.
My congratulations also to Julie Saxby and her boy Gunner. He is full brother to Freddy from a previous litter to my Ch Sargenta Silver Xalvador and GrCh Sargenta Silver Veronica . He was also awarded his third and final 1st Open CC and BOB making her boy Champion Graygees Top Gun.
Both boys did well in their side classes.

July 2010
Guestbook

We have sadly lost 5 years worth of guestbook posting due to the guest book company going out of business, it's very upsetting as we had many wonderful posts over the years, please can you help recreate some of those by posting in our new guestbook, found on the guestbook links.

Show News
5th June 2010
Merseyside Cat Club

Today, Black Silver Tabby, Sargenta Silver Aida, won her Open 1st and first CC. My warmest congratulations to Val Westerman her owner.

27th May 2010
New Champion 2010
I am pleased to hear from Dany Costerman and Family that Sargenta Silver Aramis - Silver Tabby- is made up to Champion. His first litter of babies is also expected shortly. My sincere congratulations to Dany and his family

My friends kitten Sargenta Silver Annelies (silver spotted) gave birth on Saturday 23rd to 7 healthy kittens. Some tabby and some spotted. All are doing well at present. The proud dad is Xalvador. I was there when the kittens were born and it is a very nice litter indeed.

I am going into hospital for more foot Surgery on 1st June. It will take longer to heal this time, 4 weeks at least and no driving. That to means being housebound with no one getting me some shopping. At present I have 17 kittens here,the first 5 on June 18th. Most people on my waiting list have not contacted me. But hopefully some will make arrangements to come this weekend, as it will be too late after that.

Show News
24th May 2010
Midland District Cat Club

The battle of the brothers! Graygees Top Gun and Sargenta Silver Andreas aka Freddy Were unfortunate to meet each other today a year apart Julie Saxby's older boy Gunner took the 1st CC and BOB with Freddie, Amanda and Barry Leonard's boy coming a close 2nd. My sincere congratulations to Julie and Amanda both boys need just one more CC for their titles and i am sure they will follow in close sucession

Show News
3rd May 2010
Manchster Cat Club

Freddie, Sargenta Silver Andreas won his second consecutive Open 1st CC and BOB my thanks to Amanda and Barry for shoing him in such lovely condition. Sargenta Silver Aida, black silver tabby attended her first show only a little over 9 months old she was awarded her Open 1st. Well done to Val Westerman her owner. Also show was Sargenta Silver Arianna, Black silver spotted who is also just a pip over 9 months, was placed 2nd in her open to an already titled cat, but both young girls did extremely well in their side classes being placed highly in all. Well done to Joanne her owner.

Personal
18th April 2010
My sincere apologies to people who are waiting patiently for news of possible kittens. I could not answer emails as my monitor broke. The LCD screen went black and that was that. It is surprising how much out of touch one feels without the wretched machine. What did we do before computers?

I have had 11 kittens born so far, but this does not even fill the waiting list from the January enquiries. 2 cats were not pregnant and have now been re-mated. This year it will be again a question of waiting or finding a kitten somewhere else. There appears to be a shortage of Silver kittens at present, but it is still early in the year.

I thank Lizz Benson for updating my website and putting several photo albums of my cats on Facebook. Lizz came down to Kent last Sunday and took the photos. They are really nice and Lizz has done a lot of hard work and I am really grateful to her. I put messages on Facebook but somehow they never seem to appear, I have no idea how to do things.

On Wednesday 21st I am going into Hospital for further surgery on my right foot. Three toe joints will have to be operated on, bone removed and toes re-aligned. Rheumatoid Arthritis is causing serious damage to a lot of my joints. Apart from the incredible pain it is very frustrating not to be able to do things. I only mowed the lawn 10 days ago and ended up in hospital unable to move my right shoulder. I need more help but Sosial Services give me no support at all. I had to sleep in my clothes for 2 nights as I was unable to dress and undress. I have no idea how I will manage next week when I have to stay in bed and am unable to walk. I have help for the cats and hopefully they will be fed and cleaned. At least Fred is looked after in Residential care. I have him home almost every weekend, but he is settled now and always happy to return. The Home is only about 5 minutes drive from here and it is nice to have easy access.

I apologise again, but I will be out of contact for at least 2 weeks now.

Show News
13th March 2010
Lancashire Cat Club
My warmest congratulations to Amanda Leonard with Sargenta Silver Andreas aka Freddy. this was Freddie`s first Adult show and he won it in style. 1st Open, CC and Bob, 3x2nd in very large side classes and "Best of Variety". Well done!
Freddy was the last kitten from GrCh Sargenta Silver Veronica and Ch Sargenta Silve Xalvador. Veronica is now spayed and living in Conwall in lovely retirement.

Shwo News
6th March 2010
Southern British Shorthair Club
Congratulations to Ch & Premier Sargenta Silver Zeno - Silver Spotted on winning his 1st Grand Premier Certificate today. Many Thanks to Hazel for having him in such wonderful condition to win this High Award.

Another Grand Winner in the Adults was Ch Robocat Basement Jaxx, a son of my Montaego. Well done Laura. Congratulations to Lesley Miles and her Spotted kitten. Tufton Miami Inkspot, 1st Open and BoB. She is a baby out of Imp GrCh Shimmerclaw Moontyger who has Ch Sargenta Silver Unique as his Dam.

Show News
Croydon Cat Club Show
13th February 2010
My friend Sian and her daughter Nicole took me to the Croydon show today. It was their first ever cat show and Nicole was very excited. She really enjoyed her day and was very quick to learn how to mark up a catalogue for me and constantly monitor the results.
Sargenta Silver Yuiliana was awarded her 3rd consecutive CC and is now a Champion. She was also awarded 3 x 1st in large side classes and 1 x 2nd. Best of Breed went to Graygees Gauis Marius who went on to win Best in Show. Well done Dr Karen Kempsell and Gina Brown, his breeder.
Sargenta Silver Zebedee also won his 3rd consecutive CC. He is now a Champion. He did equyally well in his side classes with another 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Zebedee won Best of Breed.
Bracknell Leisure Centre is a very nice venue for cat shows as the lighting is good and there was plenty of space.The show was run well by Brenda Barroman and her helpers with all the work being finished on time.

I thoroughly enjoyed my day inspite of being in a lot of pain. Sian and her daughter made my day very pleasant with all their help and I thank them. I very much hope that they go to another show with me.

Show News
Southern Counties Show
30th January 2010
I am very grateful to Natalie and Lee and especially Natalie`s Dad (who drove the car) to take two of my cats to the show today. I was not well enough to go with them. Sargenta Silver Zebedee - Silver Spotted and Sargenta Silver Yuliana - Silver Tabby both won their 1st Open, CC and Best of Breed. I do not have the results for their side classes.
Natalie`s kittens Sargenta Silver Aliyah- Silver Tabby and Sargenta Silver Annelis - Silver Spotted both won 1st Open and Best of Breed against competition. Natalie was over the moon with joy. The last phone call also told me that Aliyah was placed 1st in a large side classes.
The two young owners of last weeks show and Natalie today are so thrilled with their new kittens and their success at shows it reminds me how I felt so many years ago when starting out with this breed. It is so rewarding to me to still be able to help the new generation of breeders, and I hope they will enjoy this hobby for many years to come.

Mary Matus - a Specialist Vet in New York - is coming back in a weeks time for her third Sargenta kitten. She collected two kittens from me at the end of October, whom she found totally delightful. This makes all my hard work worth while.

Shnow News
23rd January 2010
Congratulations to Amanda Leonard and Sargenta Silver Andreas aka Freddy. I quote:
Dear Ursula
"Freddy (his second show). did really well - he got First Open and BOB. I had entered him in four side classes where he came 1st in three and 2nd in the fourth. Also won a considerable amount of silverware! As you can see on his enclosed photo he was worn out by his day! Lots of people asked to take his picture and he was happy to oblige." Best wishes Amanda

Congratulaitons also to Joanne Reddington and Sargenta Silver Arianna silver spotted kitten. Arianna also won her 1st Open and Best of Breed and did well in her side classes. Joanne was thrilled to do so well on Arianna`s first show. Arianna did well in her side classes by winning 1st in a class of 9 and 3rd in a class
of six.Well done to both kittens.
I received some lovely photos from the show for both Freddy and Arianna