My name is Anne Lähteenmäki and I live in Siuntio, Finland. My greatest passion in life is abyssinian cats. I got my first abyssinian in 1984 -her name was Ticks Atti. My breeding career did not start until my second cat Mi-Amor Dona Jo'Anna and the first Proxima litter was born in 1996. I have four cats at the moment, and an occasional litter of kittens. My cats are family members right from the start and we live together in a lovely symbiosis. The keywords are: natural, healthy, happy.

I breed ruddies, but an occasional sorrel kitten is most welcome. It is very important for me that I have lots of time to enjoy each kitten and make sure they have the best possible start in life. Each litter is a project of its own and gets my full attention from the day of mating to the day the kittens move to their new homes. I think they deserve nothing less.

The name Proxima comes from the star Proxima Centauri, which is the closest star to Earth (besides the Sun). The word itself comes from latin and means "closer" or "nearer". I chose this breeder name at the age of 18 since I had always been interested in astronomy and thought it would be a nice intimate name for my cats. And during the 10 years of waiting for the first litter I completed my studies and became an astronomer. Kittens' names are all astronomy or space related -maybe not as obviously as you might expect but there is a story behind all of them.

Photo: Virpi Villa-Peltonen