Gift ideas for animal lovers

Playful and coquettish, this cat personifies the most exclusive of felines, Thailand's Korat, or Si-Sawat cat, reserved only for royals and high-ranking officials. This cat of natural race has been bred in the royal cattery of Korat province since 1350. The earliest known record of the Korat appears in "The Cat-Book of Poems" edited between 1350 and 1767. This book presents Thailand's seventeen good luck cats, and is presently found at Bangkok's National Library. According to this book, "the Korat has a body color like the dok lao (a plant similar to lemongrass, but with silver-tipped flowers). The hairs are smooth, with roots like clouds and tips like silver; the eyes shine like dewdrops on a lotus leaf." Locally, the cat is known as Si-Sawat, (Happiness). By tradition, a Korat cat is given to a young royal couple on their wedding day as a symbol of happiness and long lasting marriage. Nantana Sompamitre replicates the cat's elegance as she carves this unique jewelry box of mango wood. Painted with acrylics, the piece receives several coats of lacquer, which Sompamitre prepares from the Gluta usitata tree and ashes of burnt rice paddy husks. As each is individually handmade, please expect a slight variation in size and color.