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Very interesting article. I liked this quote in particular: My personal theory is that Siamese with clear coats have the ticked tabby pattern in their genotype, which of course is invisible. Those with body markings and patches, to a greater or lesser degree, on shoulders, hips, flanks, stifle, belly, or groin, have mackerel or blotched tabby patterns. Fortunately we are given a clue, as kittens briefly show ghosting between 2-4 weeks and this is how I selected my Benwell Seal Points for good colour - they were well known for their cream coats.

Never heard that one before.

I can't say I agree that coat colors were better in the old days, when I look at the photos in books like Marge Naples book and Phyl Wade's book, I see quite a few seals with a nice clear cream-colored coat but I also see a LOT of body splotches, along the back and shoulder, which you rarely see today. One of the problems today (as I'm sure it was back then) is you don't see cats or photos of cats over 2 years of age. When I'm at shows I always try to sit through premier judging just because so often that is the only opportunity to see older cats from todays lines.

I do think that across the board profiles were much better 30 years ago. What did you think of Singa cats? Jeanne being the legend that she is, were they long-lived and healthy? Good temperments? Did they hold their color into old age? I don't think I've ever seen any but black and white photos and to the best of my knowledge there aren't any in active breeding anymore.

Sin-Chiang had a cat, Sin-Chiang Brandie of De Vegas that had a very unique look, very almond shaped eyes and huge ears for her time (though too closely set by todays standards). I'm always looking to find her in a pedigree.

The Singa and Thai-Bok lines are very intertwined. Chantara also had a lot of Singa back of it. So my "middle cat" has significant Singa breeding on both sides. She is healthy except for bad teeth and slightly reduced kidney function at age 12.

My other two current cats, my former kitties and the sires I bred them to do not have a lot of Singa blood, other than what was outcrossed into Thaibok 5 generations back in one of my late queens line. Really don't know much about Singa from personal experience, although Blue Minstrel was a handsome kitty. Hatcher had an extremely pretty Minstrel daughter, a sealpoint, Singa Waltz Time of Rich-Hat, and also a New Moon Eclipse grandson, but I was interested only in blues and lilacs so I stuck to her other two stud cats, Apache and Hot Shot. (My Blue queen so definitely preferred Apache that even while she was confined with Hot Shot she would languish against Apache's side of the stud cage and make eyes at him. This annoyed Hot Shot so much that he expressed his displeasure into Apache's water dish . . . :-D )

I have heard of In Lieu although that cattery doesn't crop up anywhere in my lines. I was prowling on a couple of pedigree websites, and In Lieu has a lot of Maloja as well as New Moon and Elo-Yse (for whom I have a soft spot on account of Hi-Soks, my parents' Lilac's grandsire).