A Memorial Tribute to Savannah Cat Breeder Margitta Graeves

June 15, 2020 Brigitte Moyne

Savannah Cat Pioneer, Mentor, and Advocate

January 2, 1962 - October 29, 2019

"Margitta was a close personal friend of mine, Paige Dana, and Katrin's. We feel fortunate to have the opportunity to share what made Margitta so memorable for our Savannah breed. We forged our friendship in the Savannah breed, in the long years spent developing our breed and promoting it through the new breed program with TICA (The International Cat Association, the primary cat registry that accepted our breed)."

Along with the many emails about Savannah breeding issues, we found our friendships growing until we had direct personal conversations. We bonded personally and wouldn't have met if not for the Savannahs. Getting involved with Savannahs was the first time I've made friendships online and feel close to and love people I haven't met. I've found that when meeting those people, the bonds became authentic and valid in person. Margitta and I never met, but we knew and cared for each other. Her death was devastating to me, Paige, Katrin, and many others in the Savannah "world."

The Savannah cat breed's history starts with the surprise birth of a Serval-domestic hybrid kitten, Savannah. It then mentions three key people responsible for "founding" this breed and beginning the process of breed recognition with TICA. It was merely an exciting hybrid, not an actual breed without that recognition. Those credited with founding our breed are:

Patrick Kelley presented the first written breed standard to TICA.
Joyce Sroufe, the exotic cat breeder Patrick convinced to try breeding her Servals to domestic cats.
Lorre Smith-Lemire, who took our breed through the earliest stages of the new breed program with TICA.

In my opinion, there are people equally crucial for our breed achieving full breed status. There are those who determinedly and selectively bred down generations to produce wonderful "purebred" Savannahs. These cats are called the SBT Savannah (Stud Book Traditional), the Cat Fancy term for purebred, and where all three generations of the pedigree only have that breed.

Margitta exemplified this. Her Kiwanga Savannahs program started early in our breed in 2000, and she began as one of the only breeders in Europe. She carefully selected her outcrosses and weeded out cats to keep those who exhibited the traits we wanted in Savannahs.

For the next two decades, many breeders in the United States imported cats from Kiwanga Savannahs in Germany simply because her cats were so impressive in type. It was worth the added bother and expense to add a cat from Kiwanga to your breeding program. Look at the pedigrees of Savannahs with superior physical type, and you are bound to find Kiwanga mentioned somewhere.

Margitta is the only breeder I've exported one of my kittens to, as I don't ship. I prefer my babies within reach if they need me in the future. Margitta could be exceedingly persuasive and, over the years, wore me down. It was an honor she was so determined to include one of my cats in her program. I didn't import directly from Margitta after establishing my cattery. I only needed males, and the timing was never right between us. I did add two cats to my program solely because their mom's moms were from Margitta. I went on the waiting list the moment I saw the arrival of that Savannah in the US.

Additionally, I've placed cats with a breeder specifically because they'd bought their male from Margitta. I wanted to see the progeny with my cat--which is the kind of back-and-forth connection that shows how valued her breeding program is.

I'm not alone in this. Not only were Margitta's cats integral to the development of our breed but so was Margitta. Margitta dedicated herself to our breed. She spent hours, days, months, and years giving advice and offering opinions. She was initially one of the Yahoo group's core admins for mentoring Savannah breeders and the same Facebook group. She was disconcertingly direct, and her sense of humor often didn't translate from German to American English so well.

You could rely on Margitta not to give a meaningless "pretty kitty" comment. Her love for the breed kept her enthusiastic and determined to help others. When she said something, she aimed to make someone think or help them with a problem.

Margitta's death was a shock to all. She wasn't elderly; she was fit and active, and therefore her passing was completely unexpected. As the shock dissipated, her loss started to be felt—her influence in our breeder group, advice, and opinions. The Savannah breed lost a key player, but her legacy lives on in the cats she produced, the programs they've joined, and their future descendants.

Margitta's website is still open today as a memorial tribute.

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