Ghibli Part 2

sooooo sweeet

AWWW! I what beautiful baby!

Oh my, what a gorgeous kitty, I love the first two pics!!!!

AWWWWWWWWWWWW.........

What a beautiful kitty-cat! And yes, soooooo sweet. I like the first two pictures best, too, just because I've never seen a cat sleep like that!

What is it with orange and white kitties that makes them so sweet? Ghibli reminds me of Sierra.

Oh my gosh, he is clearly VERY much loving his new home!! Those pictures are GREAT! I LOOOOVE those back legs in the first two pics! I am falling in love with your sweet Ghibli!!

aww, you guys, Gibby says thank you The pose you love so well is apparently veeery common among vans, it's called "the boneless van pose"

You are a real looker, Ghibli. I see that you have another standard Van-problem. You are lying on your tail in your new photo #336. I'll bet that is because it gets away from you when you are sleeping and wakes you up. I can't even take a quick nap unless I pin mine down.

Do you like the water? You know they call us "The Swimming Cats"? If you don't know where that label came from, let me know, and I will tell you the old, old story about Vans many, many years ago.

Cheerio,

Samwise

Awwww....I wanna give her a big hug! So sweet!!!

He's precious and he already looks like he feels very comfortable in his new home. I'm looking forward to seeing more pics of him.

Aw what a sweet cat! I love that pose, and his soft fluffy tail! He looks to be quite the charmer, no wonder he's got his daddy wrapped around his little paw (and his meowmy too, naturally)!

Thank you Samwise and James!

We know all about the stories (I'm a half turk myself, actually) and the name.. I'm sure we'll end up with a cat in the tub eventually.

his tail is sooo long!! it's adorable, but it's almost as big as he is!

Wait I don't know any stories! Can someone fill me in?

Van Catsare known to enjoy swimming! They live beside the lake, and in the unbearable heat, they would be seen swimming in the lake and loving it!

Love the way Ghibli's lying

Your new siggys great as well!

Originally Posted by pinkdaisy226

Wait I don't know any stories! Can someone fill me in?

Click to expand...

Howdy, Pink Daisy,

As Turtlecat says, most of us Turkish Vans love the water. Our breed's original home is near Lake Van, in Turkey, a beautiful part of the world, hence we are known as Turkish Vans. In the wild we were known to actually go fishing in the lake.

The old, old story my dad, Jim, mentioned goes like this (some people call this a myth, but don't you believe it).

Lake Van is very near Mount Ararat, which is often claimed as being where Noah's Ark landed, as, given its altitude, the water naturally receded from the mountain early on. There were, of course, a pair of Turkish Vans on the Ark, my ancestors and Ghibli's, along with two each of all the other animals.

Now we Vans are rather fastiduous beasts, and the pair on the Ark, as they approached the top of the mountain as it rose out of the water, decided that they had been cooped up with too many smelly animals for much too long.

Thereupon they held hands, leaped over the side of the Ark, swam to the mountain, made Lake Van their home, started a family of beautiful furbabies, who forever more loved the water, became great swimmers, and are today known as "The Swimming Cat."

And that's the truth. You can take it from me.

If you would like to learn more about Turkish Vans, here are a couple of links. First is a web site which tells you about the CFA Breed Profile:
http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/turkish-van.html.

Next we have an interesting web site which tells several stories about Vans:
http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profile...rkish-van.html

And last, here is the home page of the cattery where I was born, in San Antonio, Texas. Here you can see several photos of some of my close relatives, and a great photo of Matabiru Lady MacBeth, happily swimming in a fast-moving stream.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Park/8631/ .

Of course last, but in all modesty not least, you can see some photos of me on my TCS Home Page, which is here (turn your music on):
http://www.thecatsite.com/cat_pages/...es.php?cat=519

I have enjoyed talking with you, Pink Daisy. We may be a little egotistical, but we Vans love to talk about ourselves.

All my love to you and your furbabies,

Samwise

Lovely pics!!!!!

Gibby is so sweet.. the girls hate him, and he's just like "yeah, you're dominant over me, I'm cool with that.. can I go back to sniffing this?" *shrugs* We're allowing him to see them and get used to them, so none of them go completely bat-poop-crazy.

Thanks for all the great info, Samwise! I live in your birthplace, San Antonio and all those cats there, and you of course, are just gorgeous.

turtlecat - sounds like you have a totally chill cat in Ghibli, I'll bet that works out with your female cats! I can't wait to see more pictures, I love the look!