In 1971 I got my first cat. "Sotarn", black as the sin! Pretty soon I was introduced into the secrets of the Cat Fancy and when "Sotarn" was 10 months old, he was going to his first show to compete in our Novice Class for European Shorthairs. (In Sweden a cat could be registered, if he was up to the standard).

What a lot of fuss. He needed a curtain for his cage, a carpet, a litter tray etc. My sister's kitchen curtains would do well. White, with large red hearts, nice with his black coat. The "carpet" was a red crocheted baby blanket of the most expensive kind. A braided basket had been bought especially for the occasion. The wonderful kind, where the cat can put one leg in each corner, which is exactly what happened at the check in.

The vet was standing with his arms crossed, I was dripping with perspiration, the queue behind me was growing and the cat was spitting and hissing. What a joke. Finally people around us helped to get the cat out.

Sotarn was installed in his cage, was judged as a not recognized European (nothing was up to standard with him)! But it did not matter as this show became the entrance for me to my hobby. I also met a lot of nice people, whom some today still are my best friends!

Cat number two was a silver tabby European, who became best mate with Sotarn for better and for worse for 16 years to come. Pelle Plums, as his name was, lost all his patterns as a grown up, so he did not become a show cat either. On the other hand he was photogenic and made his living on cat food adds for many years.

Cat number three was a silver tabby European too, Tabu's Hampus. He, on the other hand, had wonderful color and patterns. He was very successful at shows before he unfortunately became ill at the age of eight and had to be put to sleep.

My fourth cat was a small tortie Persian girl named Brunnbäckens Jessica. The it just went on.. Tortie cats has been and still is my great passion. When things were at its worst, I had no less than six torties in different ages and coat lengths.

In 1974 I was at a show in Linköping and saw a wonderful shorthair litter, round and cobby British Shorthairs. I fell in love with a tortie kitten, who unfortunately was not for sale. I ordered one alike her from her breeder and in 1976 Pirot Cobby Queeney was born.

Pirot Cobby Queeney

She became the foundation to my British Shorthair breeding. Actually I could not decide weather to breed Persians or British Shorthairs. So in the years 1978-1992 I had an odd litter of Persians from time to time.

During her years as a breeding queen, Queeney had many nice children. Amongst others Björnligans Linus, a white cat boy, who was The Cat of the year in 1985. After Queeney I kept a tortie female, Björnligans Twiggy, who’s lines are not longer around and a white female, Björnligans Petronella.

At the same time I bought a black female, Zapatas Billie Jean. But my major break through was, when I got the opportunity to buy the love of my life, Pirot Cobby Wimbledon, alias Buddha, who was then a grownup cat.

Pirot Cobby Wimbledon

A lovely cream teddy bear, who year after year was merited not at least as a Best Breeding Male at SVERAK's list. He was also one of the first cats to get the title Distinguished Merit into his pedigree.

Buddha, together with my new breeding females and many others, I think has created the main family tree for the modern British Shorthair in Scandinavia. He brought new ground for the generations to come both their looks and temper. Many still remembers him as the cat who at distribution of prizes always had the scarf of Järva Kattklubb around his neck!

My so far mentioned breeding animals are all gone and but have been replaced with new ones. I kept two torties, one from Zapatas Billie Jean, Björnligans Ida-Lisa Bus, and Björnligans Greta Kavat from Brunnbäckens Doris. Unfortunately Ida-Lisa only had one kitten, Björnligans Tuffa Queenie, who amongst other is the mother to my second love, Applecat´s Ali Baba, a red spotted male with enormous show merits and also a wonderful temper. His grandfather being Pirot Cobby Wimbledon, does not make things worse!

At a later stage of my life, my husband, Bengt, came into the picture. He, of course, also is the part owner of our British Shorthair cats and our prefix, BJÖRNLIGAN.

Today we have dour breeding females and one stud and our old tortie, "Värstingen", who just became 12 years old.

Up till today I have bred British Shorthairs in the colors white, black, blue, crème, black tortie, blue tortie, red tabby, red mackerelled and red spotted.