About Us
We are a family owned business located in the mountains of Tennessee. Shelia, the owner, love of animals and especially cats began at early age. Her daddy got her both a kitten and puppy for her 4th birthday. Jingles was what she named her black Cockapoo puppy and Tabby was her grey long haired kitten. Unfortunately, Shelia turned out to be allergic to all animals with fur but her and Tabby had bonded and she begged her parents to let her take allergy shots in order for her to keep her cat. So she took allergy shots for the next 5 years and kept Tabby until she crossed the rainbow bridge at age 20. Shelia developed a love for black cats while in high school and became active in black cat awareness while still in high school in the late 1980's.
After Tabby passed in 1994, Shelia adopted her first black cat Diamond from the local animal shelter here in Tennessee. Diamond was most loved and well traveled kitty living in 3 different states with Shelia. He crossed the rainbow bridge at age 15, the day after Shelia's birthday in 2009. Diamond's passing devastated her and was the first time in her life she had been without a cat. He passed in February and in May of 2009 she adopted Taz at 6 weeks old.
Many have asked about Taz being so big and her being a girl with the name of Taz. When I adopted her, they told me she was a male kitten and she was so hyper active plus my daddy had a black male cat named Taz and I thought it would be an honorable tribute to him naming my kitten after him. Taz is so big because her daddy cat was a Maine Coon. And yes at almost 13 years of age she's still has her fiesty spit-fire cattitude.
Smudgie entered my life at a time when I needed him and he certainly needed me. I was literally in the hospital and saw a picture of this little mad scared black kitten on a local TNR rescue site. I contacted them and once I was better I adopted Smudgie who by the way chose his name as I had originally named him Gizmo but he wanted no part of that name. Onnie and Smudgie are full brothers and he takes after their daddy cat with his larger size while Smudgie is relatively small like their momma. Next is the twins, Lucky and Binxie who share the same daddy cat as older brothers Smudgie and Onnie.
Taz is an American short-hair/Maine Coon mix while all of the boys are Bombay Rescues. All of them are certified Emotional Support Animals and registered nationally as they all also travel with me.
Our name came from me having lived in various states outside of my home state of Tennessee and everywhere I went because of my strong southern accent I was called a hillbilly. Of course house panthers is another name for a black cat and hence Hillbilly House Panthers was born.