Susanna Toldi Bugge, her husband Erik, and their many cats live in a white-painted house just outside of Ĺrhus, on the Eastern coast of Jutland in Denmark.

Susanna's primary aim is to breed perfectly coated individuals in the Cornish and Devon Rex breeds. The name 'Bodwin' comes from the Cornish language for 'white house' and was FIFe (Fédération International Féline) registered in 1971.

Susanna has since 1992 been the Chairman of the Danish Rex & Sphynx Club, is presently a member of Racekatten (Denmark), where she is consultant on cat matters for the Jutland area. She is also member of Nordiska Rexringen and Rex United (Sweden), the FIFe Devon Rex Breed Council (FIFe DRX-BC) and was in 2003 elected secretary of the FIFe Cornish Rex Breed Council (FIFe CRX-BC). She is also a member of the Danish National Breed Council (AR),

Susanna loves dogs as well. After the death of her 13 years old Hungarian PULI, she now has a miniature POODLE - completely matching the size of a Rex cat.

Breeding Cornish Rex cats has been our hobby since 1972. I saw a beautiful Rex cat at a show in the 1960s and simply fell in love on the spot. I couldn't have enough of looking at her heart-shaped face below those huge ears. But "Lord," I thought, "what a naked cat! She could be so beautiful with a coat on; why didn't someone do something about that?" That was my first cat show--I certainly didn't suspect it would be me!

Two years later, we saw an ad in the paper for Cornish Rex kittens. Joakim af Pyames was the lovely gray of a mouse. His mother sat on top of a boiler in the scullery. She was black, we were told. All I could see was two bright yellow eyes in the dark. I just had to have that kitten.

Jokum soon needed company, but there was not a single Cornish Rex kitten for sale in the whole kingdom of Denmark. Fortunately, at Jokum's first show we met the English judge, Mrs Nancy Hardy, who is one of the earliest Cornish Rex breeders, and who had just the right female for Jokum: the lovely black-and-white Senty Twix Mia. Nancy was of trementous help during the upstart of our breeding programme. Lovely Mia was just 1 year old when she had her first litter. That was the beginning, and from then on, we have been breeding cats... After a lot of selective breeding, I think I have finally managed my goal of "putting some fur on them."

We have a litter just every 1-2 years and that's it. The cats used for breeding are nearly always at least International Champions and we select for temperament as well as kitten bearing and parental care. Lots of time is spent cuddling and playing with the babies. Temperament is especially important since we want our cats to be able to live in families with children of all ages.

All our cats stay with us until they die of old age. The eldest one turned 18 years!

Our cats take part in just about everything that we do. Outdoors, if they want to, they have the run of a small forest behind our house as well as our garden where they willingly contribute to weeding around our roses. At night each and every one of them is inside the house. Their preferred place is on our shoulders, but should that place be taken, there is always a lap or someone's open book or newspaper to curl up on.

Our primary aim with both Cornish and Devon Rexes has always been to breed cats in full coat. After all, isn't it the coat that makes the Rex cat? All our cats (also the Devons!) have beautiful, thick, wavy coats.

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