— Do you hesitate in having the pleasure to have a Korat ?

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Make your dream tear along your life

not your life eat up your dream.

[ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ]

@^{In course of writing, my story ...}

Marie-Jade is a little girl who is going to be 6. She would like to have an animal, rather a cat. That’s fortunate, I love dogs but in Paris, it often rains and be obliged to walk the dog every day would be quickly a chore. This time books and everyone seem to agree : to own a cat give a child a sense of responsibility, self-confidence, teach him the respect of life… and thousand other things that I already forgot !

By the past, I already have to take care of animals several times but never a pedigree one. I always found that snobbish and why do I have to buy an animal if I just need to go in a cemetery to find a lot of abandoned cats… for free. But this time things are different, he is for a member of my family. In fact to introduce an other member in the family. And it is for years.

If it exists a present that remains and that you remember during all your life, of course the cat is this one ! So I am looking for the ideal one. Which animal will suit her the best ? With which animal do I want to associate my daughter ? Which image do I want to transmit to her ? Do I want a “super cat”… so I will have to pay for him ?

The question of money is quickly solved : I too much love my daughter to save up money for her gift… and as I just stopped smoking I thought that the whole life of a cat is less expensive than the price of a box of cigarettes by month… so I can commit on offered her this present (about 1500 euro)… That is done : I am going to choose a cat without thinking about his price but only about our preferences.

I started questioning people. No one agreed about the ideal cat. Some said that buying a pedigree cat is better because he has all the vaccines and guarantees for a perfect health. Others said that pedigree cats are more fragile than the others. The main question is : which breed did I wanted to choose ?

During months, it is a game for me to search information about cats. Now I know a lot of things about cats because of this research.

One day, a friend who knew that we were looking for a cat introduced hers, Sammy, to my daughter. He is a pedigree cat… a Korat. He is small, all grey, very soothing. He looks like a sleepy prince. In our bathroom we have a little statuette of an Egyptian cat, and as he exactly has the same body we exclaimed together : “Sammy looks like Bastet “. This awaked him, he has wonderful green eyes. He seems reassuring though yellow eyes frightened Marie-Jade. I told to our friend : “Your cat seems so Zen”. She answered : “It is funny because everybody tells me that, it is because of his breed”.

Of course, Marie-Jade immediately loves him. She loves all the kittens and he seems so young. They played together the whole afternoon and I have to admit that he was the first cat that I saw who was able to bring back, in his mouth,  the little soft toys that my daughter  threw to him. He was also able to come back at his owner feet when she called him. He was so obedient. We were very impressed. Our friend explained that this breed is very intelligent and for this reason these cats are trained to work for circuses… so they sometime do not have a funny live. We learned that Sammy is very old but as this breed is very small the cats continue to play their whole life… people often think that they are kittens. She explained to us that this breed comes from Asia and that all the Korats are much more tonics when they are playing, contrary to European cats, and that is logical.

She is leaving Paris for one week. Immediately, Marie-Jade and I asked her if we can take care of her cat even if we do not know what is his favourite food. But she preferred let him alone to “keep” her apartment. Our friend explained to us that this breed takes care of herself alone and that she just has to leave a large quantity of quality food and the cat will manage himself the exact amount of food he needs for a day. It is easy for her, well-balanced for Sammy and… very economical ! She just needs to change the litter every two weeks to avoid bad smell… and as these cats are very clean it could be annoying for them. I like this a lot because if I have to take care of the cat only twice in a month it is very easy for me and my daughter and suits me fine.

So I started to look for information  on this breed but it is very difficult. Nobody knows it ! The vets told me : “Yes, we have heard about these Zen and clever cats, they are among about ten listed pure breeds, but in fact we never saw one”. I learned that pedigree cats are more fragile and have a shorter life than the others because they come from genetics crossbreeding from the last two centuries. All cats but not the Korats who are a pure pedigree breed since ever. It means that one thousand year ago a Korat was exactly  the same as Sammy. This pure breed is more resistant than the others and of course this intensifies my envy to offer one of this cat to my daughter !

The Korats are living in Thailand in an area names Korat. Originally  the King and the Queen used to offer one of this cat to the young married couples of the court. Then, the done thing was to offer a cat to the engaged couples when you want to wish them a real happiness. Nobody knows why ! This Zen cat brings luck, and is the only breed which remains faithful to her owner and not to the person who feeds her. It is the reason why you only have to think twice before you decide to offer a Korat because if you want him to be happy you should never leave him for ever. All kind of legends exist about this cat. Personally, I like him because he never loses his coat because he does not have under coats and he is always very clean. Of course it would not be a problem at all to brush him and do the cleaning of his coats every day but it is much better without these little disadvantages. And as the doctors say he is the only cat you can not be allergic to. The fact that he is self-sufficient for his food reassures me too : he will always remain  nimble and supple and I will not have to handle with the vet for obesity problem…

We often go to see Sammy. Marie-Jade taught him to play with marbles. You can not imagine how quickly he learned.

We decided to go in search of a Korat for us. Here started a really hard  search. First I found breeders who proposed cats from the “Russian Blue” breed. But this one is a biological creation dated from some tens years and which does not own all the Korat’s qualities. Then some breeders proposed me some  Korats who were not real pure breed. A lot of breeders, almost abroad,  sell Korats who are not really Korats. Since we were looking for information about him we learned how to recognize a real one ! Officially, in France, there is no Korats breeders. I started to be a little nervous so I decided to ask where I can find a Korat. I learned that this cat almost never lived the Korat area in Thailand except for some years with an unscrupulous American woman… I told myself that after all a trip in Thailand can be the way to bring my cat back ! The Embassy told me that the Korat is protected and is a breed on the way to extinction. Not only it is forbidden to cross the frontier  with such a cat but most of all I can go to jail ! The breeds which are on the way to extinction are listed throughout the world. So we go to see our friend telling her that she is the owner of an illegal cat. She laughed and gave us a law text. It is written that, for this kind of protected breed, you can own one of this animal but on the other hand there are two things that you can not do. We are very attentive. First of all you absolutely can not practice crossbreeding. A Korat does have kittens with an other Korat in order to perpetuate the breed. On the other hand , the Korat’s owner has to be in possession of official papers for his cat, for his parents and grandparents which can prove the perfection of the breed.

Marie-Jade’s birthday is arriving and I still did not found a Korat. I want to drop the search, it seems to be impossible to find a perfect cat between the breeders and the problems with the French Customs if I go abroad to bring one back.

Finally comes the birthday party but… no Korat. But we wanted this one and no other.

Then,  the year after, I started again to search, I saved up a lot of money and I would not tall how but I am the owner of a pure Korat offered for Marie-Jade’s birthday… She was seven. In fact the most beautiful present of all her birthdays. As we were in 2002, it was the “T” year for the cat’s name so we decided to call her “Tara Verte” like the Tibetan goddess, but this is an other story.

This story does not end there.

Of course, my daughter’s friends come at home to see this little Zen animal so attractive. Of course, everyone ask them how to find this breed of cat. Of course, we are looking for a male for our Tara and have a family. I decided to create an association to defend this breed… so this is the reason of this website.

Meanwhile, our “Tara Verte” ran away… and came back with little seeds in her belly… and then four kittens are born ! They are not grey but all the same very cute, very tonic and clever with the Korat’s character. You can see the pictures of the family on this website. Tara is holding by Marie-Jade and her friends are holding the kittens. They are all very happy. Now it is your turn to search…

?

To involve oneself in little things,

is reaching big ones,

with time.

[ Samuel Beckett ]

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