Photo by Kjeld Krogh

 

Flatland's Clara - a small cat with a huge personality

by Jette Eva Madsen.

Clara, or Miss Norway as she was called by some judges, who felt that she was the epitome of a feminine Norwegian Forest Cat, was a small female weighing 3,8 kg. She had, however, one of the strongest and biggest egos that I've ever seen in a cat. Thus it was Clara who finally challenged Flatland's Avedine, disputing with her the slot as head of the Felis Jubatus pack. Clara ruled with no soft paw, and the other females occasionally found it difficult to submit to her reign. >

Clara was not only our smallest cat. She was also the most fertile and productive cat that we ever had. She gave birth to no less than 76 kittens. We wanted to sterilize her at the age of six, because there were so many of her offspring breeding in Europe. But our vet simply refused to perform the operation, because Clara was the healthiest female that she had ever seen. Clara's kittens always had the world's best temper, and she had lots of milk and looked after them in a way that could not be bettered. >

We were lucky that we didn't neuter Clara, because we kept a kitten from her last litter that was born after she celebrated her 10th birthday. >

Clara was nicknamed Squirrel, because she was always climbing us, as if we were trees and she a squirrel. Using us as a climbing tree in this way was another proof of Clara's incredible self-confidence and strength of character. She possessed that perfect combination of character traits that makes the Forest Cat such a wonderful family cat.