Charm was born April 6, 2018. She was a classic tabby under the lynx pointing and carried both cinnamon and the classic tabby pattern.
Nothing to write home about
Charm was shown once for her championship. The most memorable result was a debate about her color—chocolate lynx was the best guess—and an uncalled-for comment from a judge that her coat was “nothing to write home about.”
I do not remember every win, but I remember every insult. More important, the insult said nothing useful about the trait that made Charm indispensable.
A title is one fact about a cat. It is not the whole cat.
Any kittens
Charm needed no assistance giving birth, getting her kittens cleaned up, or separating them from the mess. She never tried to move her litters. She would nurse kittens endlessly, including kittens from less skillful queens.
Put her in a pen with kittens—any kittens—and she would clean them, then flop down to nurse them. Thanks to Charm, I slept. Kittens from another new queen had little round milk bellies.
All I had to do was keep her bed clean, keep her litter fresh, and feed her about three times as much as any other cat while she was nursing. Kittens are more fun when you do not have to syringe-feed them every two hours and rehydrate them when they are not getting enough fluids.
Every breeder needs a queen like Charm.
The first modern litter
Charm’s first litter arrived May 28, 2019. It was the first litter I had taken part in since 1985 or 1986. It included Hobbes.
There were successes, a stillborn kitten, and a kitten with poor neurological function who survived only about forty-eight hours. Charm did her work beautifully. Biology did not promise that every kitten would live.
What breeding judgment can see
A show evaluates the cat presented to a judge on that day. It does not evaluate whether a queen births cleanly, accepts intervention, keeps a stable nest, has enough milk, or takes over when another mother cannot manage.
Charm was worth more to me than a dozen Grand Champions because she kept kittens alive and let the humans sleep. That is not sentimentality. It is selection based on what the breeding program actually needs.
The heating pad years
Charm’s work did not prevent her from developing a somewhat uncommon approach to the nap period. She said nap when and where you want to, preferably on the heating pad and without regard to anyone else’s claim.
She volunteered as an office cat when the calendar required it and remained unimpressed by Wednesday. Retirement is supposed to be comfortable. Charm understood the assignment.
Queen Charm the great.
The line ended
In 2024, Charm developed the wasting that had appeared elsewhere in her line, and we made the decision to let her go. It is one reason I stopped using those genetics and brought in new lines.
The judge saw a coat that was nothing to write home about. I saw the queen who would nurse anybody’s kittens.