Est. 2025 · Bushey, Hertfordshire
Our Story
A cattery that began as a love affair with one cat — Echo — and a promise that cats deserve better.
The Journey
Where we began, and where we are going
Nothing about Muggles Mittens happens by accident — and that is rather the point.
2025
Where it begins
Muggles Mittens begins in Bushey. It starts, as these things do, with one cat — Echo — and the decision to do things properly, having seen at first hand how carelessly some catteries breed. Our first British Shorthair queen joins the family, and the foundations of a small, ethical breeding programme are laid.
2026
A foundation of queens
A year spent building a genuinely strong foundation — a lovely variety of health-tested queens with strong, carefully chosen lineage. And towards the end of the year, the piece that shapes everything to come: our own stud, Aris, joins the household.
2027
Our own prefix
We reach an important milestone and gain our own GCCF breeding prefix.
We begin building on the hard work completed in 2026, carefully matching our queens with carefully selected studs and developing our own Muggles Mittens lines from the beautiful cats at the heart of our programme.
This also allows us to begin planning each queen's eventual retirement from breeding, ensuring their careers remain thoughtful, limited and centred around their wellbeing.
2028
The next generation
Once our new girls are fully grown, health tested and ready to join our breeding programme, we will begin planning the first year of litters from our own Muggles Mittens lines.
By then, we also hope to have gained some valuable show experience and perhaps even a few wins along the way. Every pairing will continue to be carefully considered, building on the foundations laid in previous years while protecting the health, temperament and quality of the British Shorthair breed.
Our Philosophy
Four promises we will not bend
Health before beauty
No cat joins our programme on looks alone. DNA results, heart scans and temperament come first — the beauty, invariably, follows.
Family, not facility
There are no cages here, and never will be. Our cats sleep on beds, supervise the cooking, and raise their kittens in the sunniest room of the house.
For the life of the cat
Our responsibility does not end at collection day. Every family has our number for life — and every Muggles Mittens cat has a home with us, always, should they ever need it.
Bred on demand, never on spec
We only breed when there is genuine demand — ideally, a queen is mated only once at least two of her kittens are already reserved. No unnecessary litters, no kittens waiting for homes that may never come.
Health Standards
Peace of mind, as standard
Every Muggles Mittens kitten leaves vet-checked twice, vaccinated and microchipped, with five weeks of free Agria pet insurance provided through the GCCF — and a breeder who remains on call for the whole of their life. Our queens come from PKD-tested, GCCF & TICA registered Championship lines, because peace of mind should come as standard.
| Test | Our standard |
|---|---|
| PKD DNA screening | Clear — every queen, verified against GCCF records |
| Wisdom Panel DNA profiling | Being completed across the whole programme |
| Vaccinations & vet checks | Full course and examination before a kitten leaves us |
| Microchip & GCCF registration | Papers travel with every kitten |
| Free insurance | Five weeks of Agria pet insurance, provided through the GCCF |
The Nursery
The sunniest room in the house
Our kittens are born and raised in a bright, warm kitten room at the heart of our Bushey home — chosen because it catches the morning light, and because it sits at the centre of the household rather than away from it. From their first fortnight the kittens hear the dishwasher, the doorbell, the radio and the general commotion of family life.
Every cat in the house is fed a raw diet from day one, and the kittens are weaned straight onto it — the healthiest possible start, and one they carry with them to their new homes.
By the time a kitten leaves us at twelve weeks, nothing about a normal home will surprise them. That is not an accident; it is the whole design.
Raised Underfoot
Ethics you can see in the cat
We keep a deliberately small number of cats, rest our queens generously between litters, and plan every pairing around genuine demand — ideally mating a queen only once at least two of her kittens are already reserved. Our queens live as family members, never in cages, and we interview every prospective family — kindly, but properly.
Our cats enjoy the best of both worlds: safe indoors at the heart of the family, and outdoors in a protected, enriched garden where they can climb, bask and patrol without ever meeting a road.
The result is the thing our visitors always remark upon first: cats that stroll over and introduce themselves. Confidence like that cannot be staged. It is simply what happens when a cat has only ever known gentleness.
At Home
Moments from the house
A few frames from daily life — there are many more on @mugglemittens.
