AZURE DREAM BLUE-EYED BRITISH SHORTHAIR

The Azure Dream line was founded by Igor Azure Dream, a DBE bicolour male found in Kazakhstan. This bicolour cat went to the Ukrainian breeder Natalya Lebedenko (Azure Dream cattery) where he was named Igor Azure Dream. Igor became the founder of numerous DBE lines, mainly British.

Igor probably has the Altai gene as some accounts say he was from a British Shorthair x Altai pairing, but I have not been able to confirm this. Igor and his descendants have introduced DBE into British Shorthair/Longhair lines: SuperQueen (Lyudmila Shkrabets), King Pride (Olga Zohar), Kittystar, SoloMiya (Olga Kachenyuk), Lana's Story, Helprada (Elena Lashkul), Beauty Factory (Natalia Tikhonova), etc. Igor's son Jimmy Azure Dream went to France with the intention of founding a new Celestial British breeding line.

Igor's gene produces a phenotype similar to the Altai gene and the Seymour gene, dissimilar to the American Ojos Azules. Igor's pedigree is registered as Ojos Azules simply because there were no other DBE breeds at that time. When carriers of Igor's gene and Seymour's gene are mated together, the kittens resemble Altai homozygotes: viable, with a lot of white, often deaf. Deafness is also quite common in Igor's heterozygous offspring.

Katja Jaric's DBE British Shorthair line comes from the Igor gene (probably Altai), but because it was not allowable to put Altai on British SH/LH pedigrees, the breeder registered Amur Dream as Ojos Azules (a TICA recognised breed, albeit lapsed). Kittystar Brilliant (n25 09 61) is an F2 DB descended from Igor. No irregularities or abnormalities detected for now.

There is also Insomia ny 11 ( n/cop I/i, LH, dilution) who is probably DBE (her right eye reflected a red colour by the ninth week, characteristic of DBE).