About us
Marianne and John Brett live in South Yorkshire, England.
(Or rather right at the borders of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, in lovely rural surroundings. We moved in April 2007.)
Marianne was born in Sweden but moved to England in 1988,
John has always lived in Yorkshire.
We have both kept and bred animals most of our lives,
of a large variety ranging from worms to dogs and sheep.
We breed the Blondbella Persian and Exotic cats,
and Goldmali Malinois and Papillons.
We both have children that all are just as animal mad.
Marianne writes the breed notes for Malinois & Laekenois for OUR DOGS.
Marianne has worked as a veterinary nurse, dog groomer and kennel maid, and is the author of
several books on pet care:
*GULDHAMSTERN (Swedish), ICA 1986. (As Marianne Bornhult)
(As Marianne Mays:)
*THE PROPER CARE OF HAMSTERS, TFH 1993
*PET OWNER'S GUIDE TO RABBITS, Ringpress 1995
*YOUR FIRST GUINEA PIG, TFH/Kingdom 1995
*YOUR FIRST PUPPY, TFH/Kingdom 1995
*YOUR FIRST KITTEN , TFH/Kingdom 1995
(The "Your First" books now known as "HOW TO CARE FOR..")
*PERSIAN CATS, Kingdom 1996
*MOGGIES, A BOOK ON NON-PEDIGREE CATS, Kingdom 1997
*EXOTIC SHORTHAIR CATS, Kingdom 1998
*WORLD OF CATS, Gramercy 1999
*FACTFINDER GUIDE TO CATS, Grange 1999
*THE DOG IN YOUR FAMILY, Kingdom 1999
*YOUR FIRST DWARF HAMSTER, TFH/Kingdom 1999
Our animals are kept first and foremost as pets.
The dogs all live indoors and always will.
The indoor cats have a safely enclosed run to go out in.
They are not allowed outside otherwise -it is too dangerous.
To have wellbehaved dogs is very important to us and all the dogs do or have
at some point attended training classes. We prefer clicker training and these days train with Paddy Driscoll of
All our dogs (except Ginny and little Abby, so far!) have their Kennel Club Good Citizen Bronze award, and
Dandy, Ripley, Arnie, Matilda, Simba , Rufus and Bobby also have
their Silver award, and in addition, Arnie, Ripley, Dandy, Simba and Rufus
have also passed the Gold test.
Dandy, Ripley and Arnie have competed and been placed in obedience although at low levels.
Rio and Marianne are working hard towards being able to compete.
Marianne does all the obedience training, and John does most of the show handling and ringcraft.