About twenty years ago, early in the history of the Oriental breed in the U. S., we Levitans purchased a Silver Tabby classic American Shorthair female, Barrer Tonka of Felitan, which we bred to the typey-est Seal Point Male available, and we were on our way. Fortunately for us, Tonka turned out to be homozygous on the silver gene so that the whole litter consisted of silver tabbies of assorted patterns and smokes. Although we didn't know it at the time, our entire program was to develop from only two of these kittens. We actually got some beautiful spotted patterns in that first breeding which  proved to have come from the seal point Siamese stud,  GC Felitan Bilbo Baggins of Saraka.
 

Our first break through in type came from a third generation OSH, Schuyler Sterling of Felitan. He was doubled on Bilbo, had some outcross Siamese and Tonka in his background. During this time, we had also been breeding a line of Orientals based on an English import, Harislau Magnolia, a spotted lavender. Maggie was bred to Bilbo and gave us Ch. Felitan Cheetah, who in turn was bred to Ch. Sand'n Sea Dandy Lion of Felitan. From this breeding, we got our first OSH grand, Felitan Eboneeza. She in turn, was bred to Sterling. The resulting breeding was memorable for us in that it produced GC Felitan Tabioca of Ogimi, D.M., and GC Felitan Silvanna, D.M. Silvanna was the first silver tabby OSH in CFA to win a grand championship and probably the first silver tabby to become a D.M.  This was the first silver tabby OSH that we considered of sufficient quality to show. We were glad that we had waited.

We also had a parallel breeding program. Carol Russell bred a colorpoint AOV to her first generation OSH silver tabby. This produced Saraka Silvia of Felitan who was bred to Ch. Y-Not Hershey Bar. Ch. Felitan Bluesilla, another breakthrough in type arrived from this breeding.

As lucky as we have been in our breeding, we could not have achieved what we have done without the help and cooperation of many breeders who were willing to give us access to their bloodlines. Our belief is that great results can be achieved by creating a large and healthy gene pool. It is important for established breeders to help serious newcomers, so that they can become valuable contributors to breeding, cat shows and other cat organization affairs.