Testimonials

The Seymoure's Story

In early 2001, we decided to expand our little family by adopting a kitten. We already had a 4-year-old black cat, Jaina, and a 1-year-old chocolate lab, Padme. To fit into our household, we could not just adopt any kitten. Since our oldest "child" was a female, it had to be a male kitten, and he couldn't be black like her either. He also had to be friendly and not afraid of our 80-pound energetic dog. We visited our local Humane Society regularly, but all they had were black cats, adults, or females.

Since we had already had experience with our dog's breeder, we decided to research the different types of cats. We had a part Flame-Point Siamese until she passed away the previous year, so that helped to influence our search. We knew we wanted the affection of a Siamese, but less vocal. In one of our breed books, we came across the Tonkinese, and decided that this was the type we wanted. We checked for local breeders on Breedlist.com, and found three potential breeders, one in Michigan, one in Ohio, and Moore Tonkkatz. The Ohio one completely ignored us and the one in Michigan wasn't much better. Only the Moore's seemly genuinely interested in talking with us.

At first, we were unsure if we could make a commitment to adopt, since we found that Jaina might be diabetic. We didn't want to introduce any new stress into her life, but after running a couple of tests, the vet assured us that she wasn't. Once we heard this wonderful news, we decided to adopt one of the Moore's Champaign Mink males from their June 2001 litter.

That Labor Day, we drove 4 hours, one way, to pick up our new baby. We had never seen a Tonk in person, and we were blown away with how beautiful and friendly they were. After spending some time with the Moore's and their cats, we felt that we had made the right decision. We named our boy "Wedge" and he quickly integrated himself into our household and lives.

After a year and half, during which we had given up our dog due to time constraints, we felt that the time was right to once again add a new family member. There was no question as to what we would do. We once again contacted the Moore Tonkkatz, and asked if they had any platinum female kittens available. They had three. We immediately requested one. Unfortunately the one reserved for us had a traumatic experience before we were to pick her up. She had been terribly frightened, and was now scared of strangers. Because of her un-Tonk-like behavior, the Moore's were concerned that we wouldn't be happy with her. We assured them that it would be all right, and they decided that it would be in the kitten's best interest to move away from their nursing mothers that had taken a slight dislike to her and also because her littermates were already gone.

We drove another 4 hours the day after Thanksgiving to pick up Winter. True, she was terrified of us, but we decided to take her home anyways. After an adjustment period, she has become a full member of the of the family. She is still skittish, but is willing to be petted on her terms and constantly

She has become rather taken with Wedge. They play all day, and leave Jaina alone, which is just fine with her. We love our kids, and are happy that we adopted two beautiful Tonks from Moore Tonkkatz.

Brant and Karen Seymoure

UPDATE!!

Hard to believe that it has been a month since we were down there to pick up Mace. You'll be happy to know that he is doing well. In fact, he is doing extremely well. He has been fully accepted into the cat family. We had his final set of vaccinations yesterday and he weighed in at 3 lbs 15 oz. Wedge had his vaccinations earlier in the month and had actually lost half a pound from the previous year. I guess having Winter and Mace around is really keeping the boy in shape. He is just a touch under 7 lbs.

Mace is constantly following around Winter or Wedge and picking up their habits (good and bad). Wedge will get up on top of the refrigerator (we've given up trying to keep him off) and Mace will just yell at him because he can't jump onto the counters yet. I give him another month or two and we'll be finding Mace up there with him. There really isn't any fighting going on except for play. Wedge is the current King of the household but we're wondering whether Mace will challenge him when he gets to become fully grown.

He is absolutely gorgeous and getting more handsome everyday. We're still debating whether Winter is a Mink or a solid but leaning towards Mink. Her eyes don't match Mace's but she certainly isn't a point. Regardless she is probably the prettiest of our four cat household.

Newest family photos:

Mace with his new kitty family

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