Cattery name
Each organization registers cattery names (quasi the family
name of the cat) by its own. There is no central registration of
cattery names for all organizations. Thus the same cattery name may
exist in different organizations for different breeders. It might even
happen that the same cattery name appears several times in the same
country, but belongs to different breeders of different
organizations.
The cattery name is chosen by the breeder and is an artificial name.
Each organization has its own regulations, how a cattery name must look
like, how many letters are permitted for the cattery name, if the
cattery name is used as prefix or as suffix. Mostly those regulations
depend on the technical equipment of the organization, i.e. how
intelligent their database is and which pedigree program they have.
So, when you find such restriction that the name of a cat may not be
longer than 30 characters - including also blanks and punctuation
marks, one immediately knows that the pedigree program or mostly
the database is not very intelligent.
There are also still existing organizations, which drop the
cattery name. Thus, one cannot see, from which breeder a cat was
bred.
Just imagine, your own family name will be dropped, when you change
your citizenship.
And there are organizations - like the WCF for example, or like
some FIFe-members, which add the country code to the name of the
cat, to indicate that the cat was imported.
So, you can imagine, how good the sorting of a database may be, when
the country code is added in front of the cat's name.
First name
Also the first name of the cat is chosen free.
There are
also very different rules in each organization.
In some organizations the names of the kittens of one litter must
start with the same letter, in alphabetical order. The 1st litter must
start with the letter A, the 2nd litter with B, the 3rd litter with C, and so on.
Some organizations order, which letter is used for all litters for the
entire year, independent from the breeder, all litters must start with
the same letter.
Some organizations have no rules, thus the name of each kitten of a
litter may start with another letter, which makes it a bit more
difficult to find out, which cats belong to the same litter.
Registration number
Also the registration number is very different in each
organization.
Some organizations have 2 registers, a LO-register and a RIEX-register.
Cats whose ancestry are all of the same or a closely related breed,
are registered in the LO-register.
Cats resulting from cross breeding are registered in the RIEX-register (experimental
register).
And strange enough, sometimes also cats from certain (mostly
non-recognized) colours are registered in the RIEX. Thus the sense
of a RIEX is completely perverted.
Some organizations have very detailed rules, which breed is
permitted to be mated with which breed. Other organizations have no
rules.
Then LO or EX resp. RIEX is added to the registration number, which is
mostly a consecutive enumeration.
Some organizations do not make a difference between "normal" breeding
and experimental breeding.
Some organizations also register the registration-number of origin,
where one can see, in which registration body a cat was registered for
the first time.
So, it is quite common practice, to transcribe the pedigree of a
cat completely, when it is imported from another organization. This
is a good source to create income. It is - as so often - all about
money.
Thus, many cats may have 2-3 registration numbers, which is very
confusing.
Breed and colour code
Each pedigreed cat belongs to a certain breed and has a certain
colour and pattern. This is encoded in every organization.
These breed- and colour codes are very different.
CFA uses a number-system, GCCF uses breed numbers, numbers and letters
for the colour-code, FIFe uses 3 letters for the breed and numbers and
small letters for the colour-code (the so called EMS-system = Easy
Mind System), in the WCF each member may use its own coding system, etc.
Mostly in the first 2 generations the colour and pattern is fully
written, but also the naming for colours and patterns might be
different.
At
http://www.eurocatfancy.de/en/nav/faq/colourcode_system.html
you find a table of the various breed- and colour-coding systems.
One must study those codes to understand them.

Titles of cats
Each organization has its own titles,
because it has its own show system.
You find an overview, which titles exist in which organization, at:
Shows/titles.html
In some organizations cats having a title from its own organization
are written in red or bold letters.
But, not every organization
transfers the titles from another organization.
If the titles are transferred, they are marked with a special sign or
written in brackets. Such cats are mostly not written in red or bold
letters.
There is no consensus amongst the various organizations concerning the
titles or how the titles are abbreviated.
There is also no consensus, if titles are transferred or not.

Additional information
If there is any additional
information of the cat recorded on the pedigree, depends very often on
the breeding rules of an organization, if it has any.
An additional information may be:
In TICA it is presumed that everyone knows, what a pedigree is.
Also in FIFe it is presumed that everyone knows, what a pedigree
is.
And also in the WCF it is presumed that everybody knows, what a
pedigree is.

Transfer
What is that?
Many organizations register, when a cat gets a new owner, especially
when kittens are sold by the breeders.
Green Slip
In CFA the new owner receives a green slip, where the dates of the
cat, as described above, are recorded, and where sire and queen and
the breeder are recorded.
With this green slip the new owner may apply at CFA for a full
pedigree.
It is not common practice that pedigrees are issued for litters. A
breeder registers his litters, but nothing more, and does not receive
pedigrees automatically.
Blue Slip
In TICA the new owner receives a blue slip, where the dates, as
described above, are recorded, where the sire and the queen and the
breeder are recorded.
With this blue slip the new owner may apply at TICA for a full
pedigree.
It is not common practice that pedigrees are issued for litters. A
breeder registers his litters, but nothing more, and does not receive
pedigrees automatically.
Transfer in FIFe
Each FIFe-member has its own form, because FIFe does not have a
central registration, each FIFe-member issues its own pedigrees.
It is mandatory for FIFe-breeders that his own club issues a transfer
paper.
It is also mandatory that cats (also kittens or neuters)
can be sold or transferred to a new owner only with a pedigree.

© katzenzeitung 3/2007 Updated 11/2011