It was on early December of 1989 when we saw Simba for the first time and fell in love with her; Simba is a beautiful six years old odd eyed white female, we decided we wanted to buy her to be our family pet; the first ever. Our first cat. Simba (she thinks she is the Queen of Shiba) became the family's spoiled and loved kitten. And, because of Simba we started to go to shows and realized that we enjoyed it more and more...  I went to four CFA shows and one TICA show; each time we loved it more and more, to the point that I decided I wanted to adventure into the Cat Show world;    it was sometime in April of 1992 when we purchased our first "good cat.   " We started our breeding program at the end of 1992, several months after buying what we were told was "a nice breeder," a copper eyed white male that  became "Ch. Windpegs Ice Prince of Deluxecats."    "Princer", as we call him, resulted not only in this "nice breeder" but into an excellent stud with ten grand champions produced and several others on the floor; one of these grand champions (Leonardo Di Vinci) ended up with a National Winner title and Best Cat for the Gulf Shore Region, and two of the others (Pablo Picasso & Micah) with Regional Winner titles, all this in 1995-1996 season.   Thank you Peggy Rogers for allowed me to have several of your babies....  Although I love whites, and whites are what I started to breed for, it is important to recognized that our very first Grand Champion happened to be a dilute calico that we named Deluxecats Natasha, 1994. "Natasha was born out of breeding "Princer" to our new queen then, a solid blue out of Gatnel, "Little Bit". Obviously,  I felt in love with the bi-colors, specially the dilutes...   After "Bitty", we have had several other blues and blue-creams from Gatnel... Thank you Jody Garrison for all your support, your friendship and your words of wisdom....  Sometime in March of 1994, we brought a beautiful blue and white female home to be one of Prince's queens. She became Ch Equinox Blue-Chip Doll of Deluxecats. "Dolly" as we call her, is the mother of Leonardo and several other nice cat-painters.... Thank you Renee Koutroulakis for trusting me with Dolly and for your words of encouragement. Thank you for caring...  ABOUT THE OWNER  OF  DELUXECATS: Deluxecats  is  a  C.F.A.   (Cat Fanciers Association) only  registered  cattery  owned  by Ilka Gomez-Hathcote. We are located in North East Texas and enjoy the country side...  I was born in the Country of Panama, in Panama City many years ago.   I have a Bachellor Degree with specialization as a Bilingual Secretary, Associate Degrees as, Office Administration, Personnel Management, Translator and Interpreter, etc. In 1978 I was named Executive Secretary of the Year and I have worked as Administrative Assistant in several Multi-national companies.   One of the last ones I worked for was the Hotel Marriot Panama where I retired as Sales Manager. In July of 1987, I was invited to come to the United States to visit before getting married, and ended up staying, so far, is being ten years...
	This story was written and first published in 1997.