When Frank and I first entered the Bengal fancy, our belief was; “if one wishes to achieve great things, one has to start with the very best…” And so when C. Esmond Gay and his partner of Sarez Bengals retired in 2004, we bought much of their collection – some of the most magnificent Bengals in existence! These included their hybridizing Asian Leopard Cats (“Sarez Little L of Gayzette” and “Sarez Apollo of Gayzette”), rare, high wild blood F1s and F2s from their 3 Leopard Cat lines, as well as most of their SBT females and studs. And forever devoted to his cats and the breed, Esmond still stays in touch and continues to help and support us, giving us the benefit of his abundance of knowledge on the breed.

And so, this section of our website is dedicated to the ground breaking work that Esmond and Sarah did for the Bengal cat during their 13 year breeding careers…

Esmond was a conscientious writer and documented many of his experiences and the knowledge he gained throughout his career, and Frank and I feel that those interested in our kittens may like to read some of his fascinating articles. They include information on how our cats came into being, their past lives with Esmond and Sarah, and why their genes are so important to the Bengal fancy. The subject matter ranges from Asian Leopard Cats to F1s and SBTs, the history of the Bengal breed and the physical and personality characteristics of these cats. There is also valuable advice on buying and caring for Bengals, and interesting features on their celebrity owners and on wild cat conservation. And there’s full information about Sarez themselves and many of the historic events that Esmond and his partner accomplished within the Bengal fancy.

Individually, each feature provides in depth details on specific areas of the Bengal cat, and if all are read in their entireties, they provide almost everything that one could wish to learn about the breed (although inevitably, there are some ‘cross over’s’ between the articles). And throughout the 8 features, Esmond has mixed circa 100 of the most breathtaking photos ever taken of his cats, including all Asian Leopard Cats, F1s, F2s, other wild cats and even stars with their kittens (the photo captions are at the end of each article and the picture on this page is of his 90% w/b F1 “Sarez Zeus”).

Esmond, Sarah and their lives with their cats have also been heavily documented in the national press and on many TV programs and so at the end of the list of articles below, we’ve provided a link to 85+ of the 100 press and magazine articles about them, which also make fascinating reading, and contain yet more amazing photos. And we’ve included a link to a YouTube channel that has circa 24 of the many TV programs that Esmond, Sarah and their cats starred in, plus it has other videos of their cattery, sanctuary and wild cat conservation programme.

Please note that any reproduction of Esmond’s articles or photos without permission will result in legal proceedings. Please contact us if you wish to copy them, and we will ask him. Also note that the articles were written whilst Esmond and Sarah were breeding and when they still owned the cats, hence they are written in the present tense.

“Sarez Bengals – Our Story…” – by C. Esmond Gay: This 7 page article is a personal feature about Esmond and Sarah, and contains the history of how they started breeding Bengals, the philosophies behind their work and what drove them. It describes how they reared their kittens and what Bengals are like to live with. It also summarises all the main events in their careers - and some of the problems that they encountered as well.