LITTLE WITCHES to Franciscan Folds
In 1984, Jean Viel, founded a small persian breeding cattery, called Little Witches, named after his home city, Salem,
Massachusetts. Jean had just left the Augustinian Friars, and had decided to pursue a lifelong dream, that of breeding
and showing purebred cats. As a Friar, he had worked with aids victims, many of whom had purebred cats. In fact,
he used the settlement money given to him by the Order to begin his new life, to buy his first breeding cats.
Jean began breeding and showing bicolor persians cats, and quickly became enthralled with the Scottish Folds he saw in a the
show halls. In 1985, he acquired a longhair fold female, Albannach Blue Nun, a blue female with poor ear-type with a
long coat, which was extremely rare in those days. He borrowed a straightear red-white male cat from a friend, and to
everyone's suprise, Blue Nun produced a litter of four, longhair kittens, three of whom folded with tightly folded ears.
Jean kept all three girls, and his fold breeding program was off to a start. At the same time his foundation
folds were producing large healthy kittens, his Persian breeding program suffered many setbacks with many difficult births.
Longhair folds at that time were not accepted for championship competition, so the were shown as AOV, Any Other Variety,
until the 1990's when they were eventually accepted by all North American cat registeries. Jean was instrumental
in writing a standard, forming a breed club, and getting the Longhair Fold accepted for championship competition in the Cat
Fanciers' Federation, in May of 1990. Since that time, Little Witches has produced a long line of Grand Champions,
and Master Grand Champions, in very limited showing. Perhaps their greatest achievement was LITTLE WITCHES WANDA,
a silver mackerel tabby-white Longhair Scottish Fold who in the 1993-94 show season was the Seventh Best Kitten in CFF, and
the Twenty Best Adult in CFF, quite an achivement since she was only an adult cat for six weeks in that show season!
In that same year, Jean Viel quietly rejoined religious life, joining the Franciscan Friars in 1993, and finally professing
solemn vows as a Franciscan Friar, in July of 2001. In his first years as a Franciscan Brother, Brother Jean kept
his vows a secret from his friends in the cat fancy and his coworkers for fear that he might choose to leave again, and wanted
to avoid the hassles of lengthy explanations. But with his profession of solemn vows,on July 8, 2001, he and his
Franciscan community, decided to finally let the cat out of the bag, and began telling people of his new commitment.
In order to better reflect his vocation as a Franciscan, and end the speculation that he was in some ways connected to the
occult, Franciscan Folds were born. So when studying our pedigrees, Little Witches Cattery and Franciscan Folds are
one and the same. Most of our Scottish Folds today are twelve generations away, from that pet quality blue female, Blue
Nun.
After undergoing gastric-bypass surgery, in December 2004, Brother Jean was finally able to loose weight,
shedding nearly 350 lbs. Now with a fitter body, and outlook on life, he was able to restart his breeding program, which
had dwindled down to one breeding pair. In July of 2006, Brother Jean and his then fourteen year old nephew, Zack, entered
a small CFF shoe in Rhode Island. It was Zack's first time showing, and the first time for Brother Jean in over ten years.
He entered Franciscan Valentine the Martyr, a shell cameo male, and this kitten made all four finals including two albreed
best kittens, and one specialtly best kitten. Zack was hooked, and Brother Jean enjoyed meeting old friends again.
Earlier in that month, Franciscan Silent As a Nun produced four kittens, two folds, Franciscan Alleliua!, a blue silver mctabby
harlequin girl, Franciscan Amen, a longhair blue mctabby-white, and Franciscan Hosana!, a straightear longhair girl, blue
silver tabby-white. Alleliua managed to become CFF's Second Best Kitten Nationally, Amen CFF's fourth best nationally,
and fifteenth best alter, and Hosanna was seventh best HHP.
The following show season, Amen would become Franciscan's Highest scoring cat, attaining 2007-08 Alter of the Year.
His full sisiter, from another litter, Franciscan Requiem for a Dead Nun was second best kitten Nationally that year, followed
by her cousin Franciscan the Angel Gabriel who managed a kitten national win, as well as national campionship win.
ALL Creatures of our God and King, lift up your voice and sing, oh praise him, Alleluia, Alleluia!!
With these simple words, from one of his simple songs, Saint Francis of Assisi sums of his view of creation: a living breathing
entity in praise of its Eternal Creator. For Francis, all of creation, especially the animals, were a sacrament, because they
reflected an awesome Creator who made them, and thus they were all good, "marvelous in His Sight!" For Francis, being in nature
was ‘worship," nature makes God present to a waiting world desperate for His presence. In caring for all of nature,
Francis honored his God, a Creating Father. When frustrated with the stubborness and ignorance of his peers, Francis would
often preach to the birds of the air, and the fish of the seas. In fact, there are thousands of stories about Francis saving
and healing countless animals, even taming a man-eating wolf, freeing rabbits caught in traps, releasing doves doomed to a
dinner table. Wherever Francis traveled, man and beast turned out to hear his joyous praises of a loving Creator God. Today,
Francis is still the patron of animals and of the ecology.
Today, Franciscans are men and women of faith, who strive to embrace the Gospel of Jesus, living Christ-centered lives.
Following in Francis’s footsteps, Franciscan strive to heal, repair, feed, embrace, and include all those forgotten,
excluded, broken, damaged, and ignored by society, and even by the Church. Embracing Francis’s Rule, means rebuilding
crumbling churches, washing and embracing lepers, feeding and clothing the poor, suffering and reassuring those in despair,
protecting the environment, and sanctifying all life everywhere. Franciscans take the Gospels out of the safety of the churches,
into the streets to the people of God, preaching penance, and love of neighbor by example. Francis teaches his friars to "do
good, and disappear, and to "preach the Gospel always, using words only if needed.".
Franciscans continue to seek out and find the new lepers of our world, striving to bind their wounds, clean their sores,
understanding their despair. Believing that all men and women are created by God, and thus are holy, sanctified, and redeemed
by His love, "pleasing in His sight", Franciscans work toward including all at the table of our Lord. In abandoning ourselves
into the loving hands of our Crucified Lord, Franciscans cannot but live their lives in quiet, all consuming Joy!
Today, Franciscan Cattery strives to celebrate the awesomeness of creation, by breeding, showing and protecting Scottish
Fold cats, and through them, promoting Francis great love of nature. Some of our cats are used as therapy cats among the most
alienated of our society, among aids survivors, the mentally handicapped, the autistic, and the elderly. Scottish Folds have
persistently friendly enthusiastic personalities which make them ideal pets for those in desperate need of companionship and
acceptance.
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Master Grand Champion Little Witches Wanda!; CFFSeventh Best Kitten Nationally |
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Albannach Blue Nun: a longhair folded girl, the foundation of all our Scottish Folds! |
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Blue Nun's first litter, the first Little Witches Scottish Folds! |
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Blue Nun nursing her near-grown kittens in the bassinette with baby Amanda. |
Little Witches Lady Aignes |
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Our First Longhair Scottish Fold Grand Champion |
Little Witches Ears I Need |
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Our First Longhair Scottish Fold Kitten |
Little Witches Bat Out Of Hell |
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A great head shot of Ears I Need: a dominant calico longhair fold! |
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