Spirit Song (AKA Mousey) was born in a litter of three kittens delivered by my friend Harry Weidman while I was out of town on vacation. The litter was rather unexpected. I had put the dam Djamoca in with the sire (Samcari Spirit Dancer) and then changed my mind and taken her out after only an hour. Spirit was neutered a week or so later (although he had been a lovely kitten, he had kept growing and GROWING and I felt I didn't want to put such a large-boned cat into my breeding program. Ah… hindsight!). When Djamoca didn't pink up at three weeks I never gave it another thought and went ahead and made vacation plans, including buying airplane tickets. I was all set to cancel the trip when I realized that my cat was pregnant, but Harry kindly volunteered to come and stay at my house to help with the delivery.

Mousey's siblings were chocolate (my favorite color), but I decided to keep the tiny lilac because she had intense blue eye color, a straight profile and the best overall balance. Those qualities aside, she was a late bloomer and didn't show promise early on. She was just a small white mousy thing, hence her nickname.

When the little mouse was five and a half months old, I decided to take her to a show. I entered her in a Long Island show along with a young seal point male I was showing. The week before the show, I started picking her up and stretching her, getting her used to the routine… It was then I noticed what a pretty cat she was developing into and I began to get excited. At that first show, she made four finals including two best kitten wins. I took her to three more kitten shows, and she was highest scoring at two of them. I then began planning where to take her for her first show as a champion. There was wonderful lineup of judges at a Rochester show in April and I was able to get her winners ribbons the weekend before. And then - crisis! During the week between shows she managed to hurt her tail and had a bump at the end. Sadly, I kept her home, waiting for the swelling to go down. Finally, when she was back in shape, we went to a show in Toronto where she was my first one show grand!

I had never had a young grand out at the beginning of a new show season, and I thought it might be fun to show a bit and see how things went. With a bit of luck, I hoped she could get a national color win or perhaps a regional award. Despite going head to head most weekends with a striking young seal point male named Raffles, she picked up points consistently through May and June. Then, in July, we had another crisis. Mousey had been in heat a couple of times at around eight months of age and then stopped. As it turned out, the reason she had stopped was because she was having a false pregnancy. Before I knew it, she had milk come in. Lots of milk! I agonized over whether to show a cat in less than optimum condition, but in the end I kept her out because she continued to final. At that point I didn't think we'd get a 100 rings in, so any points gained could be kept.

By the end of July, her body came back into condition and, you guessed it, another crisis. I had given her a post show bath and she had a reaction to the shampoo. In one night she managed to scratch patches of hair out of her face and neck. I began to call her my "incident prone" cat. More agonizing… I took her to a show and then decided not to put her in the rings. A friend talked me into at least trying her in the first ring, and when she took Best of Breed and finalled, I decided to go head and show her. Ultimately she had her lowest ring point averages during those August shows, but she still picked up some points. We were closing in on that magical number that we felt would assure a regional win.

By September everything had fallen into place. The body was lean and hard and her coat was back in condition. But unfortunately by then she was cycling again - one week on and one week off. I took her to two more shows where she did very well -- including five Best Cats and highest scoring cat in Schenectady -- then pulled her to breed her. She had well over enough points to secure a spot in the top 25 regionally and a good chance at hanging on to a national color win. I was pleased with that and figured that the season was still young and other Siamese would be out running for the national breed win.

When the New Year came and Mousey was still best Siamese with less than 100 rings, I decided to take her out for another show or two. The breeding had not been successful (that was another whole story; and we would try again). She had improved with maturity. and I felt she looked better than ever. We tested the waters at a local show. When she finalled in all six rings including two bests, I figured we were off and running. Except my work schedule prevented me from attending another show for over a month. Other cats were out showing and were close to passing her in the standings. It didn't look too hopeful. We were finally able to get serious again in March. She had good shows almost every weekend throughout the remainder of the season. And by some miracle she had no more incidents. She even held off going into heat until after her last show in April.

Incidents aside, the Mouse was a joy to show. She was not an extreme Siamese, but she was pretty, totally balanced and extremely difficult to fault. She was also a very sweet cat, putting up with weekend after weekend of "midnight runs" to shows where we would leave in the wee hours of Saturday morning to drive six or more hours to a show. Even after a night of confinement in a carrier, she would hit the first ring Saturday morning chattering away and in the mood to play.

Mousey went on to produce many fine litters. Her daughter, GC, BW, NW Thaifong Dancin' in the Dark, was Best Siamese nationally for the 1998-99 show season. Dancer's brother, Broken Arrow, was never shown but produced six grands in his first year of breeding.

Mousey's other grands are Spirit in the Night (seal point female), Starry, Starry Night (seal point male), Straight From the Heart (lilac point female), Never Surrender! (seal point neuter) and If I Can't Have You... (seal point male). The latter two cats are litter brothers from Mousey's last litter. They granded at the same show on the same day thus making Spirit Song a DM with six qualifying grand offspring.

In March 2000, Mousey became ill while carrying her last litter.

The blood work showed an elevated white count and we suspected a reoccurrence of the low-grade uterine infection that had plagued her over the years. With intense supportive care, Mousey delivered a litter of four healthy kittens in April. She appeared well again and nursed the kittens until weaning age.

Then we discovered the tumor which a biopsy confirmed as cancerous. Mousey was spayed and the tumor was removed but she never really recovered from the surgery. After several months of heartbreak and supportive care, I made the extremely painful decision to let her go.

I still miss her every day but her legacy lives on in her descendents who grace my home and the show rings.

Pedigree of GC, BW, RW Thaifong Spirit Song, DM Lilac Point Siamese Female 0275-959082 08/01/1994
Parents	Grand-Parents	Great-Grand-Parents
Ch Samcari Spirit Dancer of Thaifong Chocolate Point 0270-895895 04/14/1993	CH Begbie's Mister Magoo Lilac Point 0274-812104	CH CSA's Telstar Of Begbie Lilac Pt 0274-694932 V1291
		Samcari's Tosha Of Begbie Chocolate Pt 0271-752846 V1192
	Ch Samcari's Oh Vannah, DM Seal Point 0273-668448	CH Samcari's Gizmo Seal Pt 0272-510019
		Samcari's Snoopette Blue Pt 0277-598267
GC Thaifong's Djamoca Chocolate Point 0271-703950 11/16/1990	CH Gicomel Tan-Django of Thaifong Chocolate Point 0270-509790	CH K-M'Ling Tanay Of Thaifong Lilac Pt 0274-399447
		Twopenny Miss Billi B. Packer Seal Pt 0273-117225
	GC Bojen Mocarra of Thaifong Chocolate Point 0271-523001	CH Singa Calypso Of Fentra Lilac Pt 0274-209990
		CH Angkor Rose Kiliki Of Bojen Chocolate Pt 0271-306005

Photos by Chanan

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