In the timeline of the Cat Fancy, the Distinguished Merit (or DM) award is a relative newcomer… The DM award was first proposed at the Oct 10-11, 1981 CFA Board meeting, where it passed with only 1 dissenting vote.
At that time, prior to any sort of computerization at CFA, an owner had to keep track of grand offspring themselves, and then send all the information to CFA’s Central Office, along with the fee, in order to be awarded the DM title. Because it required the owner to actually claim it at that time, there were many cats who earned the title, but whose owners either were not interested, or perhaps had retired from breeding and were not even aware of this new award.
Over the years, many dedicated linechasers have researched and discovered a number of DM cats from pre-computerization days, and their work has led to getting those cats granted a belated DM status. However, even that process has its difficulties, due to lack of information. The early yearbooks, although they list the grands for the year, they do NOT list any sire or dam information — and if the cat never bred and produced offspring, that information was also not available via studbook records.
So, for years, there have been many cats that linechasers have suspected qualify for the DM title, but have been unable to prove. One such cat was Tina Marie of Cashmere, a Chinchilla Silver female who was born June 25, 1957. She had 4 grand offspring that could be “proven” to qualify, but still was missing that elusive 5th grand. Her offspring at that point were:
- GC Cashmere Tenderly of Twilight, Chinchilla Silver Female, 1962 CFA yearbook
- GC Cashmere Bateena Of The Braves, Chinchilla Silver Female, 1964 CFA Yearbook
- GC Cashmere Jamie of Kitty-Fair, Chinchilla Silver Male, 1968 CFA yearbook
- GC Cashmere Rebel of Sandia, Chinchilla Silver Male, 1972 CFA yearbook
It was such a shame that this female Persian from the 1950s was so close to earning her DM, but was one Grand short.
Then in 2010, more than 50 years later, there was a breakthrough. CFA judge Richard Gebhardt donated his old show catalogs to a linechasers group to work on, and in the midst of one of those catalogs from the 1960’s there was an entry for a Chinchilla Silver female named GC Cashmere Gidget. The catalog listed her parents. Her dam was Tina Marie of Cashmere! Gidget was the 5th Grand Tina needed to qualify for the DM title.
Although GC Cashmere Gidget was listed in the 1968 CFA yearbook, her pedigree was a dead-end, meaning her parents were not listed.
Armed with the names of Gidget’s parents information, Barb Brush, who created the Perlore pedigree database on CatPedigrees.com, contacted CFA and had them confirm Gidget’s pedigree. Based on the information Barb sent them, CFA agreed with her research. They actually had to assign Tina Marie a new registration number, consistent with today’s current numbering system, in order to process the DM award for her.
This easily makes Tina Marie of Cashmere, DM the oldest Persian to receive the Distinguished Merit award in CFA history.
And the moral of this story is… PLEASE don’t throw those old show catalogs away! There are people who would be happy to take them off your hands, and it might even provide some very important missing links in our breed history.
