Cattery van 't Wentershoes

We are Erik and Leonoor and have a small cattery in the eastern part of The Netherlands. We live in a region called “de Achterhoek” in the city of Winterswijk. In local dialect we say “Wenters”. The name of our cattery “van ’t Wentershoes”, means literally: “from the house in Winterswijk” in local dialect. It was difficult to select a name but we finally choose it because it’s nice sound.

Our cattery officially exists since March 28, 2002, from that date we are officially registered. We are a member of the independent amateur cat society “Saint pro Cat”.

At this very moment we have six cats, our “lapjeskat”, freely translated as “patchwork cat” ‘Poema’ and five true-bred cats: in order of appereance in our cattery:
a sealpoint Sacred Birman: ‘Sherpa’, a blue British Shorthair: ‘Grizzly’, a lilac British Shorthair: ‘Amber’, a lilacpoint Sacred Birman 'Lotte' and bluepoint Sacred Birman 'Lucky'.

Amber is our first true bred cat from our own first litter. Out of our own curiosity we went with her to a cat show to find out how the judge would rate her. Amber was exactly three months old at that time. She received a U2 with a final description: very promising! We will definitely return when she has grown somewhat older. And we did, recently she earned her second CAC.

We are a small cattery and will try to keep it that way, but you never know…..
Sherpa and Grizzly have had both their own litter during the summer of 2002. Fortunately it all went successful and from the reaction of both we gathered that they enjoyed it to be a mother. We also found this event in one word: fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed this time. We decided not to leave this a once off occasion and decided that both cats can have a litter every now and then.
All our cats can go through the entire house and they have an outside ’cat-run’. They also enjoy time outside in the garden, but only if we are around.

After 3 litters we made the decision to have another Birman, we really like the blue ones. She should have showquality, because that would be great for Amber to go to shows together with another cat. We decided to make it more difficult for ourselves by trying to get a "Scandinavian girl". It also gives us the opportunity to get some fresh breeding blood in Holland.
After some weeks and spending a lot of time on the internet and emailing with a few breeders, we ended up in Danmark. Unfortunately this beautiful little girl becomes very ill and they have to put her to sleep. So sad.
For us it means to start all over again. After a few months our search ends up, we are in contact with 2 breeders in Sweden, having 3 litters together.
After a lot of emails and phonecalls we will enjoy a week vacation in beautiful Sweden. We travel through a big part of Sweden and are visiting Droppstenen's and Chin-Lee. We have a pleasant time with Jan, Siw, their cats and the 2 litters (Droppstenen's). It was really nice and we enjoyed their hospitality. But finally Jan thinks that the blue girl is not good enough as showquality to go with us to Holland. Next visit is with Gunnel Olovsson, the litter is so sweet, nice and good showquality.......but I think the girl is not really blue but lilac ....... what now ??
We have some time, the are 9 weeks and a few days old now, we can think some more. A "hard" decision has to be made (...not really...). She is very beautiful and so sweet ....... about 3 weeks later we are driving back to Sweden to get our liny tot. She loves it in the car, a big part of the journey Lotte is on my lap sleeping or looking around quietly.
When we arrive at home, there is an incoming email from Micheyl from Danmark. She knows a breeder in Danmark with a very nice blue girl ........ we would like to have a blue girl and for Lotte it is nice to have a friend of her own age to play with ......
Like this you think about more good arguments to make the decision to go over and look at her .... the next weekend. And indeed she is a beauty, let's think about it.
Quit obvious: after 3 weeks we are travelling back to Hanne (Lucky Look) in Danmark to bring our little blue girl Lucky back to Holland.
Right from the start Lotte and Lucky are best friends. Sherpa acts being their mother and all three like that very much. We are enjoying their silly things and funny stuff.At last they are growing to fast!
For now our cattery will not grow much more, because we think (at this moment) 6 cats for us is maximum.
In 2004 Amber had her first litter with beautiful kittens.  
We had to neuter Lucky in September 2006, because the invection of her uterus won't heal even after the second set of antibiotics. Health is most important for us, but it is a pity that we never had a litter of Lucky, however.
Poema dies in February 2007 after a good and healthy life. She was 16 years old. 
In March 2007 Lotte has her first litter. And maybe we will keep a female choc in our cattery.... Evita
Afterall we think 6 cats is a maximum for us.

In our cattery health, a good character and love for the cats is our number one priority when we breed with our cats, next to improving pure-breds. We therefore want to remain a conscious amateur-breeder of cats.

Also our website is in constant development and will change on a regular base.
Check under info/news and you can see right away what has been changed recently.


We would enjoy and appreciate that after you have visited our website you sign our guestbook and leave a short message. We would like to find out what you thought of it.

Lots of pleasure reading and looking at the pictures!

Thanking you in advance,


Leonoor & Erik