Presented at the CFA Judges Workshop

Following seven years and four presentations to the CFA Board of Directors, the Tonkinese were finally accepted for championship in 1984--approximately 20 years after the first efforts to develop a breed that was intermediate to two of the most desirable--the Burmese and the Siamese. In the mid 1960's Jane Barletta in New Jersey, and Margaret Conroy in Canada, independently launched breeding programs to produce Siamese/Burmese hybrids -- Tonkinese cats. Their reasons for initially undertaking this venture were distinctly different, but nonetheless each produced a line of dark brown cats, with seal brown points on face, ears, legs and tail. The color was labeled 'natural mink, ' because the fur resembled a natural-undyed mink (Barletta 1986). Jane placed an advertisement in Cat Fancy which led to communication with Mrs. Conroy and with Mary Swanson in California. Jane collaborated with Margaret Conroy to draft the first standard for the Tonkinese breed (Bernstein 1980; Roy 1994). The breed was accepted for registration by Canadian Cat Association (CCA) in 1967, and first granted championship status by the same association in 1971 (Dallgherty 1991). At that time the breed name was officially changed from Tonkanese to Tonkinese.