Cat lover: "They're just angelic to look at," Julie Greaves said of chinchilla brothers Nelson and Angus, who were born on January 7 to Ava. "That was her last litter. I got three little boys out of that. She's been spayed and she's a happy little house cat now." Picture: Carlos Furtado
"'THE crazy cat lady', that's what the family call me," Julie Greaves joked to the Sun.
"I have seven cats, three kittens."
Grooming those cats is no laughing matter, however.
"People in the cat world are pretty protective of their grooming techniques," Ms Greaves, of Rooty Hill, said.
These techniques are like good recipes, she said, tongue planted firmly in cheek, and should only be passed on to loved ones.
Ms Greaves, treasurer of the Silver Cat Club of Australia, said that at the age of nine she fell in love with cats after her parents brought home a chinchilla.
"I already had a domestic long-hair, so as a hobby I'd go out with my aunt and show them at local shows.
"It was probably about five years ago I started thinking about doing it again, only because the kids had grown."
Ms Greaves will enter two baby long-hair chinchillas in the male kitten section of the Western Districts Cat Show at Riverstone Sports Centre on Saturday.
"It takes me two days to get these guys ready, cutting nails, trimming around eyes and in their little nostrils, ironing up the [display] curtain — and that's before packing up the car," Ms Greaves said.
"With a Persian [which is what a chinchilla is], because of their big coat, when the judges pick them up they want to be surprised by their weight.
"They want short and cobby. That means from the base of the neck to the base of the tail they are short in length and, generally, they like them short to the ground.
"The judges will also look at the [colouring of the] foot pads."