JULIE
WALKER
My first pedigree cat was a Seal Point Siamese which our family purchased when I was about ten years old. Prior to that our family always had cats, right from when we were living in the country with literally dozens of 'farm' cats. I have been breeding and showing Turkish Vans since 1988.
After reading about them in one of many cat books around at the time, I decided that this was the breed for me. To this point I had only shown a Foreign White bred by my sister, Rona Sandilands, and had not been near the longhair section at any shows. I was very surprised to find that there weren't any Turkish Vans at the show, nor even in Queensland for that matter. This was May 1988.
I decided to do something about this, and at the very next show, in June 1988, I entered my first Turkish Van, Yorkhouse Tinkerbell, who I purchased from Marilyn Brown from Victoria. I am now very proud to say that I have been breeding Turkish Vans longer than anyone else in the southern hemisphere, past or present.
Over the past fifteen years, I have become even more passionate about cats and the Cat Fancy itself, holding various positions within the Queensland Independent Cat Council. After starting my judges training under the late Pat Mercer in the early 1990's, I completed the Group 1 programme under the excellent tutelage of Anne Faulkner and the late John Maskell, becoming a junior judge in 1999.
I find judging a truly rewarding experience, being able to handle the best of what breeders and exhibitors have to show. I can honestly say that the quality of cats being shown on the bench only gets better year by year and, for the most part, the exihibits are a credit to their owners and/or breeders.