we are excited about getting to know Huxley and embracing his little personality

The Siamese Connection

A bond between souls is ancient — older than the planet.

~Dianna Hardy

I’ve had a Siamese cat for as long as I can remember. They are my absolute favourite breed. Having one makes me feel complete, like having my own sidekick. When I moved away from the family home, I brought my Chocolate Point Siamese cat with me. When Tucker passed away at age seventeen, I knew moving forward was going to be difficult.

After a couple of weeks passed and I was tired of being miserable, I decided to get in touch with the breeder who had sold us Tucker. I wanted to see if it was possible to trace his bloodline and maybe have a part of him back in some way.

When I heard back, the news wasn’t good. The breeder had stopped her business eight years earlier. There was no way for me to find another cat in Tucker’s family.

My husband helped me realize that even though we couldn’t get another cat with Tucker’s bloodline, we could still fall in love with another cat. After searching online, I discovered that a woman who lived five blocks from us bred Siamese cats. One of her cats had just given birth to five kittens a month prior. I thought it was pretty cool that the kittens were just down the street, so I contacted her and asked if she would mind if my husband and I came by for some “Siamese therapy.” She obliged happily, and off we went to meet the Siamese babies.

We showed up at her place with no expectations. We had a blast watching all the babies crawl around. The timing of their birth was perfect as they were just starting to explore and play. While chatting with the breeder, Jane, we asked her how long she had been in the business of breeding.

She told us, “Over twenty-five years.”

I mentioned the town where I had gotten Tucker seventeen years earlier. I didn’t provide her with any other information.

She said, “It’s funny you say that. I used to live about forty-five minutes away from there.” Nineteen or twenty years ago, she told us, she had sold two Siamese cats (from different litters) to a woman in the same location.

“The woman also bred Bouviers,” said Jane.

I froze because the biggest coincidence in my life had just happened. The kennel that Tucker was from also bred Bouvier dogs. They had a huge farm property, and the big black Bouviers were running free in the farmyard as we pulled in to pick up Tucker. It had to be the same place.

“Do you remember what kind of Siamese cats you sold the kennel?” I asked.

“A male Lilac Point and a female Chocolate Point, I think,” said Jane.

Tucker’s parents were a male Lilac Point and a female Chocolate Point. The ages of Tucker’s parents correlated perfectly with what Jane had said, too. Jane pulled up photographs she had stored on a hard drive. To our amazement, there they were: Tucker’s long-lost family. We had found them! She had a picture of a cat named “Gorgeous George” who, as it turns out, was Tucker’s grandfather. The kittens that Jane had now were descendants of George’s bloodline through their mother. This means they are cousins to our beloved Tucker — and living right in our own neighbourhood!

“May I hold them?” I asked.

“I’m not sure how they’ll respond,” said Jane. “They really haven’t had any human contact, but you can go ahead and try picking them up.”

Carefully, I picked up one of the little boys and felt an immediate connection. He was the only one willing to let me hold him. As I brought him close to my chest, he did what Tucker had done when I first met him. He put his tiny paws around my neck, and I looked at my husband and said, “He’s the one.”

My husband nodded in agreement. “He’s definitely the one.” We had a part of Tucker back again, living on in a beautiful little boy, and we were overjoyed.

Tucker and I could have ended up anywhere in our journey together. We lived in a multitude of different cities, travelled in cars and across the country in moving trucks, and even flew in airplanes together. After I graduated university, we moved away again, and I met my husband. It was an amazing coincidence that Tucker’s parents were born a few blocks from the home where we eventually settled.

It’s been a month and a half since we fell in love with baby Huxley. We are so happy that he is officially home. We decided to name him after author Aldous Huxley, as he too had Siamese cats who would sit on his shoulders while he created his art. Perhaps our Huxley will do the same. My husband and I are both artists and we loved it when Tucker would do that. Either way, we are excited about getting to know Huxley and embracing his little personality.

— Mackenzie Donegan —

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