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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 20, 1988)
Bruhl and his t>oss at Domino’s performed a variety of repair and tune-up services during the summer. "We didn’t really go out of our way to advertise," Bruhl says. “It was word of mouth mainly. It’s just something I do for fun.” Eric Laird, a junior industrial distribution major, took his hobby a step further by printing business cards and advertising in the newspaper. From his curiosity about how things work, Laird and a partner created Edison Technologies to make money at doing what they had already been doing for years. “I started working with computers about six years ago. ” Laird says. “I was always interested in electronics, so computers were an interest. I got my first computer when I was a freshman in high school. I’ve been working with them ever since. “My electronic knowlege is almost 100 percent from reading, tinkering and playing around, taking things apart and putting them back together,” he says. “I had more broken toys when I was a kid than ones that worked. ” Student shares Continued from page 7 Witt is the only human in this living arrangement, and is roommate-less by choice. But she did try to have a roommate when she first moved to Bryan-College Station in 1986. “My roommate knew in advance I had cats, but when kittening season came around, there were kittens everywhere, ” Witt says. “She loved them, but as much as you can love cats, there comes a time when you want to lay down on the couch and not have 30 little feet jump on you, or to wake up in the middle of the night and not have kittens playing in your room. I think it drove her a little crazy. ” Witt’s roommate was Denise Hastings, a junior elementary education major at A&M. Hastings says things did get out of hand at times. “Whenever they found my door open, they loved it because my room was ‘forbidden land’ ”, Hastings says. “I had a sofa they loved to scratch on and they also loved to use the rug underneath my bed as a litter box. ” Hastings can look back at the situation now and laugh. She says she still visits the cats often and that she and Witt are good friends. Witt says she and Hastings will often bet a Coke on how many kittens will be bom to a certain cat that’s expecting. Witt is not entirely alone in her endeavor. Her next-door neighbor and boyfriend, Kenny Westmoreland, keeps her one male cat, Trevean. He also helps out with two-person jobs, such as clipping claws and bathing the cats. Westmoreland says he gives up a "I’d deen ]preipar\r~icj and fixing things for a whiie. ” he says. “I finaiJy just decided to make it official; to advertise and tell people what we do and how we can help them. “It is basically a consulting and procurement company.” Laird says. “We help people and businesses find out what they want and need and then we install it for them. ” Laird says his hobby will pay him more than money. He says he is gaining insight and experience into a field that he intends to enter upon graduation. “Even though later in life I’ll be working on a larger scale, I think it’s helped,” he says. “I’ll probably go into selling and consulting. I’m getting a feel of how it is to find out how things work. I’m learning a lot about the language and all the terms. ” We all know that school is busy and that both time and money are scarce. But in the eternal struggle of trying to make money for school and finding time to pursue hobbies, some can use their hobbies to make money. For those who are able to do this, work is transformed into play. Graphics by Lynn E. Lptton apartment with favorite furry friends lot of Witt’s attention to her cats. “They’re high on her priority list,” he says. “If I got half the attention they do, I’d have it made!” He says he never knew the job description of a boyfriend included some of the things he’s done for the cats, including helping one female give birth when Witt was out of town. “I’d seen Jana do it lots of times, but I hadn’t ever done anything like that before,” he says. “I came home from work one day to check on the cats and found a newborn kitten in the middle of the floor, all alone and cold on the linoleum, screaming at the top of its lungs. I just put it in the box and helped the mother deliver the rest of the kittens the best that I could. ” Witt says Westmoreland did a great job, but it’s Witt that usually assumes the role of midwife. “All my cats depend on me to help them have their kittens,” she says. “A lot of cats will go away from the home to have the kittens and then return. But my cats are right there, in my face, crying, jumping into their box, jumping back on me, jumping back into the box.” In addition to the emotional support during the birthing, Witt is there in case of emergencies, and is ready to wash the kittens if the mother won’t. Witt has had a lot of experience in the cattery business. Her mother, Jimmie Witt, started raising Persians 12 years ago. “Mother always vowed to herself that she’d have a fur coat and a Persian cat. Well, she got the Persian, and three months later she had a fur coat — and fur on everything else as well,” Witt says. The Witts found raising kittens to be addictive and continued in the business, which included going to cat shows throughout the state. Her mother recently moved to Las Vegas, so she doesn’t raise the animals any more. She still keeps them as pets, though. Witt says her mother, a psychiatric specialist at a mental facility in Las Vegas, was asked by administrators to bring one of her pets to her floor to interact with the patients. Witt cites the stress-relieving qualities of cats as the reason. The Witts’ Persians have found homes around the country and beyond. Jana Witt says the felines have been sold to customers as far away as Switzerland and Arabia. Here in Bryan-College Station, Witt does her own advertising to sell approximately 15 kittens per year. Several local veterinarians and pet stores allow her to put up pictures and signs. And whenever she plans on attending a cat show in Houston or Dallas, she’ll advertise in the metropolitan newspapers in advance for anyone that might be interested in Silver Persians. She usually attends three shows a year. Witt will bring an adult, a few kittens to sell and photographs of kittens too young to go to the show. She says she’s sold cats on photographs alone. Silver Persians are fairly popular today, Witt says. “Well, for one thing, they’re beautiful animals,” she says. “People recognize them as the cats in the Amore and Fancy Feast commercials. ” Witt estimates that most of her customers are female. “The cat is the epitome of gracefulness and fertility and beauty, ” she says. “I think women are attracted to that.” Witt doesn’t see herself as much of an entrepreneur, though. She says her cats sell themselves because of their popularity. The Persians sell for approximately $300 apiece but Witt just breaks even each year because the costs of raising the cats and going to shows are so high. “People say it takes a grand to make a grand, ” she says. “People aren’t in this type of business for big bucks. It’s because they love cats. ” It’s obvious that Witt is in it for love. She saves the kittens’ baby teeth for future owners, she takes baby pictures and she says she remembers the first time the kittens drink water and the first time they venture from their boxes. She names each and every kitten also, with names like Snickers, Edelweiss, Tumbleweed, Palace Music, Mongoose and Pooh Bear. Witt says she tends to make special bonds with her customers. Many send Christmas cards, occasional notes and pictures. Although Witt will always have cats as pets, a part of her hopes to continue the kitten business, too. “There’s so much joy in what I do, ” she says. “But it may come to a time when I’ll just buy a ranch and spend a $1000 a month to keep all my cats and kittens with me.” THursday, Oct. 20,1988/At Ease/Page 11