Who We Are
The owner and founder of Xi-Gua Siamese is Catriona M. Mac Kirnan. I (Catriona) was born in Colorado, but moved all over the country while growing up, as my father was in Civil Service. Four years in the U. S. Navy involved more moving and travel -- rather difficult for someone who needs cats in her life -- though I did not ever go to sea. (I asked the Navy to send me to sea and they sent me to a weapons development station in the middle of the Mojave Desert. We called ourselves the Desert Navy!)
I am a conservative, committed, Catholic Christian, trying to manage my cattery in a way that honors the Lord Jesus Christ. I am assisted in the daily work of the cattery by my housemate, Marie Hutsell, also a committed Catholic Christian. We attend St. Peter's Catholic Church in Rocky Ford, where I play piano as a part of the music ministry. Most of the work for the web site is done by my friend Rhonda K. Hageman, who lives in Englewood, Colorado with her husband TayVon. Rhonda and Tay are also strong Christians who attend the Church of Christ in Littleton, Colorado. Rhonda dyes and hand-spins custom wool yarns and has her own web site, Aspen Tree Yarns. As you can see in the picture above, our cats are also Irish Catholic in orientation.
The name of our cattery
The name comes from the PBS children's series Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, based on the book of the same name by Amy Tan. In the TV show, Sagwa's younger sister is named Xi-Gua (pronounced "Shee-Gwa"), which means "watermelon" in Chinese. As watermelons are an important crop in Rocky Ford, Colorado, we selected that name for our cattery. However, we spell it as it would be written in Chinese Pinyin, not as it's pronounced or spelled on the PBS show. From top to bottom, the Chinese characters read "xi gua mao", which means "watermelon cats." The first episode of the series is available on YouTube, Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat -- How Sagwa Got Her Colors, as are many of the other episodes.
The names of the cats
My first cat when I was a child had the (imaginative) name of "Kitty", but ever since I was in college, getting more involved with my Scottish and Irish heritage, my cats have always had names in Scottish or Irish Gaelic. I'm not fluent in either language, but can communicate in Scottish Gaelic at an intermediate level. I began with a pair of seal points named Miurne (a creatively misspelled form of the name usually Anglicized as "Myrna") and Morag, and a blue point named Alasdair.
Later, while stationed in California, I adopted an abandoned (pregnant!) seal point and named her Deirdre (a tragic Irish heroine). Two of her kittens whom I kept were named Diarmaid and Grainne after the legendary couple in the Fenian cycle. I also had a rescued blue point, Fionn MacCumhail ("Finn McCool", the hero for whom the Fenian tale cycle is named), when I came back to Colorado, followed by Brendan (after St. Brendan the Navigator), Niall ("Neil", after 3rd-century Irish high king Niall of the Nine Hostages), Shannon, Maureen, and Sheila (the Irish form of Cecilia). After moving to Rocky Ford, I founded Xi-Gua Siamese, and acquired my first stud Ryan, shown below on the left with his mate Sheila on the right and their first kittens in the center.
Home Page |
E-mail & Phone |
Breeding Females |
Breeding Males |
Deposits, Prices, Contract |
Current and Upcoming Litters |
For Breeding or as Pets |
Our Story |
Other Cat-Related Sites |