Roseann Stevenson:  

Life Hi there! I live in Ocala Florida. I have one kitty named Punkin because I brought her back from Texas around Halloween time. She is very precious to me as she is one of the last of a line of Oriental cats that I bred for the snow-white, blue-eyed, orange point colors. It took a few years to perfect the lineage to the point of getting evey kitten born with orange ears, nose, tails and paws. Sometimes I had as many as 12-20 kittens clawing at me during feeding times but they all went to good loving homes. So of course, I am kind of sad to see the last few remaining cats of this line. Before this, I had tried very hard to breed an oriental Manx but there were too many flaws in that breed to make it work. I did however end up with a strong snow-white breed with blue eyes while in N.Y. so you may run across a few of them up there. I am permanently "retired" as I have the same affliction as my youngest daughter. It is Arnold Chiari Malformation. Our brain stems have fallen thhis affliction has so many different symptoms, it is very hard to dianose. Doctors used to think it was an old person's disease until Arnold "Chip" Chiari was diagnosed with it and now doctors find many, many children are born with it. My daughter showed signs of it when she was about five yrs. old when she refused to walk on a black and white patterned floor. It gave her an optical illusion that she would fall in. If we had known about her condition before her bicycle wreck, we could have had surgery done to strenghthen her dura and saved her from the restricted life she has now and also prevented her from facing a future in a wheel-chair. She has come to terms with all this now and is a wonderful young woman. I, on the other hand, just fell one too many times off a ladder at work, and have not yet come to accept this early retirement and all its restrictions. ...Expand for more