My husband (Mike) has a allergy to cats that manifests itself in his breathing. He finds it difficult to catch his breath, wheezes and needs an inhaler to remedy the problem. He has always been like this, so when I first met him, my two moggies were not the most popular aspect of our relationship!

When we decided to set up home together, I agreed to this on the understanding that my two cats went into ‘foster care' with my mother. This meant I could still visit but Mike was kept away, it also meant his visits to the mother in laws were kept very short, which I suspect he quite approved of.

However, I soon found that home was not the same without a cat, and one day I was playing on the internet and found a US site about Siberians. I made some enquiries about UK breeders and eventually we visited Heather at Silkiestar for an allergy test.

Mike held the kitten, later to become our cat Boris, and we had a cup of tea and a chat. Heather then pointed out we had been there about 40 mins and Mike was OK, in fact he hadn't wheezed, coughed or spluttered once! All in all, after an hour Mike was still Ok and we decided that the probability was he would be fine with the cat.

When we got home, all was well, no reaction from Mike, but Boris was lonely, so back we went for another kitten and a few days later we collected Ivan and now all four of us live quite happily together.

Mike still has no adverse reaction to the cats over 12 months on, he can pick them up and pet them and live alongside them quite happily. He avoids grooming just in case, so I do that, but otherwise all is well and we really wouldn't be without the two little terrors now. The most entertaining, affectionate companions there are.

Adrienne Yarwood
June 2006