Why We Started Felinology

By Jo Bell, Founder & Creative Director

"Ring 3, November 2025 — Toni Jones judging, Rebecca Wagstaff on the clerk's table, and Emily catching up ringside. Not our first show, but very much still us."

It started, as most things do, with a cat.

Actually, it started with several cats — and a growing frustration that the world of pedigree cat showing in the UK felt like a members-only club that nobody had remembered to unlock the door for.

I'd been showing cats under TICA since 2012. I loved it — the spectacle, the breeds, the extraordinary people you meet when you spend a weekend in a room full of serious cat enthusiasts. But I kept noticing the same thing. People would wander in off the street, genuinely curious, and leave slightly bewildered. The shows were wonderful, but they weren't always welcoming. Not because anyone meant to be unwelcoming — just because nobody had quite thought about the person who'd never been before and didn't know where to look.

That bothered me.

In 2016, my sister Emily and I decided to do something about it. We applied for a TICA charter and found a small venue in Edenbridge, Kent, for our very first show.

We called it Felinology.

What We Wanted To Build

The vision was simple, even if the execution wasn't. A TICA championship cat show that felt like an occasion. Something you'd dress up for. Something with atmosphere, with theatre, with the kind of attention to detail that made people say — I've never been to anything like this.

We wanted breeders and exhibitors to feel genuinely supported, not just processed. We wanted families to arrive curious and leave converted. We wanted the cats — every breed, every colour, every shape — to be celebrated properly, not just judged.

And we wanted it to be run by people who actually cared. Because that makes all the difference.

"Jayne Penny, Johnny Cash the Maine Coon, and me — ringside and very happy about it."

Ten Years On

That first Edenbridge show was small, but genuinely beautiful — and it taught us just how much we still had to learn. We came away wanting to do it all over again, better each time. For years we stayed close to home in Kent, refining the show with every event, before making the move to Leatherhead Leisure Centre in Surrey in 2024, where we've been ever since.

I breed Peterbalds under the Jezebel cattery name — I established the breed in the UK, which I'm enormously proud of. Emily runs the operations and logistics with the kind of calm efficiency that keeps me from losing my mind in the final weeks before a show.

Felinology is still a TICA Chartered Club. But it's becoming something bigger. A brand. A community. A platform for education, for breeders, for people who love cats in all their extraordinary variety.

Our November 2026 show — Velvet Rebellion — is the most ambitious thing we've ever produced. If you want to understand what Felinology is becoming, come and see it.

What Hasn't Changed

The thing that drove us in 2016 drives us now. That every cat is worth celebrating. That every person who walks through our doors deserves to feel seen, welcomed, and inspired — regardless of whether they have a Supreme Grand Champion Peterbald or a rescue moggy they found behind a Lidl.

Show up. Stand out. Belong. That's what we've always believed.

That's why we started Felinology.

"Best in Ring — a gorgeous Abyssinian with Judge Fate Mays, and two very proud owners."

Jo Bell is the founder and creative director of Felinology International Cat Shows and the breeder behind Jezebel Peterbalds. She has been an active TICA member and exhibitor since 2012.