# Finally booked my Maine ****!



## daikenkai (May 24, 2007)

Sorry no pics yet! But after 4 years of waiting and moaning at my OH I have finally found a great breeder and put a deposit down on my first Coonie!

He's a Red Silver Mackerel Tabby with White (long I know. lol) and he's gorgeous! We've decided to call him Bullet, won't get him for another 8 weeks but it will be well worth the wait. He's from Old Lines so should be a big lad. His Mum and Dad are HUGE! I'm so excited, so even though most of you guys won't care I'm gonna tell you anyway cos my family is sick of hearing it. lol 

Pics up ASAP!


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## Shell195 (May 31, 2007)

He sounds gorgeous:flrt:


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## leopardgeckomad (Feb 2, 2008)

ive never heard of these before, so i googled it and now im in love with em.they are deffo on my wish list wen i leave the roost 

stunning animals, and congratulations op i bet your very excited 

brad


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## daikenkai (May 24, 2007)

Oh he is Shell, wait til you see him!:flrt:

Thanks Brad, I'm HUGELY excited. I found someone selling Coonie kittens about 2 years back but they seemed dodgy. You need to find a good breeder to be sure you're getting a pure Coonie. My boy got the lynx tips and everything! lol


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## Charlibob (Jun 21, 2008)

oooo ginger coonies are the bestest kittys (I'm not biased at all :whistling2

Definitely need pics of him :flrt:
The people on here Maine **** Cat Forum are all lovely and are happy to talk about Maine ***** all day long :lol2:


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## daikenkai (May 24, 2007)

hehe, your kitty is purty! 

I actually joined that forum but haven't really posted...not sure why. Had a look at all the pics tho! lol


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

daikenkai said:


> Sorry no pics yet! But after 4 years of waiting and moaning at my OH I have finally found a great breeder and put a deposit down on my first Coonie!
> 
> He's a Red Silver Mackerel Tabby with White (long I know. lol) and he's gorgeous! We've decided to call him Bullet, won't get him for another 8 weeks but it will be well worth the wait. He's from Old Lines so should be a big lad. His Mum and Dad are HUGE! I'm so excited, so even though most of you guys won't care I'm gonna tell you anyway cos my family is sick of hearing it. lol
> 
> Pics up ASAP!


What lines is he from?


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## Charlibob (Jun 21, 2008)

daikenkai said:


> hehe, your kitty is purty!
> 
> I actually joined that forum but haven't really posted...not sure why. Had a look at all the pics tho! lol


The Oh goes through the galleries going I want that one and that one, ooo I like that one too :lol2: God knows how many we'd have if we had a bigger house, they're definitely addictive!!


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## daikenkai (May 24, 2007)

feorag said:


> What lines is he from?


His Mum is Carramazza Isabelle Blue and Dad is Kyamron Mckenzie.


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## daikenkai (May 24, 2007)

Charlibob said:


> The Oh goes through the galleries going I want that one and that one, ooo I like that one too :lol2: God knows how many we'd have if we had a bigger house, they're definitely addictive!!


Haha! Know what you mean, my OH pretends he doesn't care but after he saw the breeders new solid blue stud he wants a blue one now. :lol2:


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## Stacey010884 (Mar 7, 2009)

Looking forward to seeing this fella! Congratulations!


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

daikenkai said:


> His Mum is Carramazza Isabelle Blue and Dad is Kyamron Mckenzie.


I was more interested in the old lines you mentioned. 

I've met Pamela (Carramazza) and I know she has been breeding Maine ***** for a long time, but that's all I'm going to say. The Kyamron prefix I've never heard of, so wasn't active when I was showing.

I just wanted to know the breeding behind your new kitten, not the parents, because I'm always interested in pedigrees


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## daikenkai (May 24, 2007)

feorag said:


> I was more interested in the old lines you mentioned.
> 
> I've met Pamela and I know she has been breeding Maine ***** for a long time, but that's all I'm going to say! The Kyamron prefix I've never heard of.
> 
> I just wanted to know the breeding behind your new kitten, not the parents, because I'm always interested in pedigrees.


would that information not be on his pedigree papers which I don't have yet? 
I get the feeling your trying to rain on my little parade I'm having here. I'm not interested. I want a healthy Maine **** and that's what I'm getting.


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

Don't take things so personally!! 

Of course the old names will be on the pedigree which you will collect with your kitten! I just thought, if you'd done your homework on the **** as a cat, you might remember some of the names that the breeder had told you were specifically from old lines.

Although I didn't breed Maine *****, I thought long and hard about it in the early 90's when I started breeding cats and almost went into breeding them, but chose my Somalis instead.

I went to America with a **** breeding friend to buy a new stud boy and a new breeding queen from Arizona and Florida in the mid-90's and spent 3 weeks visiting **** breeders in those states, so I came back probably knowing more about ***** than my own Somalis.

I've retained that interest ever since and whenever anyone on this forum says they've rescued a **** or bought a new kitten I _*always*_ ask what the breeding is.

It was the fact that you mentioned they were from old lines, which I'm more familiar with than the more recent lines that have been imported, that perked my interest to ask you - out of an interest to see if there were any cats I knew personally behind your kitten, purely because, having bred and shown cats for 20 years, I'm really interested in how pedigrees develop and what cats are behind today's cats that I knew personally from seeing them at shows or them being bred by friends of mine. 

You did say that he should be big, because he's from old lines, whereas the old *British* lines from the early imports in the mid 1980's weren't big cats. It's the new lines from the imports in the mid-90's that brought the size and true **** type into this country, so that made me even more curious about his lineage.

However, if you don't want people to be more interested in your kitten than just saying "what a pretty kitten" and prefer to think I'm trying to rain on your parade, go ahead, I'll not comment on your thread again!


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## daikenkai (May 24, 2007)

Since this is my first time buying a pedigree cat all I was interested in was if they were healthy and from a caring breeder. I didn't go into lines etc. at all, I'm just going by what the breeder told me. As you say you know a hell of a lot on the breeding and lines of Maine *****, me being just a person who wants to buy one as a pet I'm not really bothered about lines. 

I think you're taking it a bit personally as well now. Once again RFUK strikes. This is why I didn't bother posting about him for 3 weeks. It's up to you whether or not you post on the thread again, I may have taken it the wrong way, happens a lot on forums.


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

OK, I'll comment on that. It's not a case of RFUK strikes again, it's a case of the written word carries no inflection.

If you'd been standing in front of me and told me you'd bought a **** kitten, the smile on my face would have told you I was deeply interested in the kitten.

If you've no intention of breeding then the pedigree shouldn't matter to you at all, as you say the health and upbringing of the kitten should be your prime concern. I only asked about the lines because you said they were from old lines, which made me think you knew what they were, and that sparked my interest because of my knowledge of old lines and the old breeders of the 80's. If the kitten had been a British Shorthair or you hadn't mentioned lines, I would have just responded "Congratulations looking forward to seeing piccies" like I do on other similar thread and then when you got the kitten I would have asked who was behind his pedigree, but I still would have asked that question.

What you maybe need to understand is, most people who have been serious breeders of any animal for many years and have studied pedigrees etc to improve their chosen breed, become a little obsessed about them and the animals behind them and that doesn't stop just because they stop breeding themselves.

In fact there are a group of people called "linechasers" who are so obsessed about pedigrees that they collect them and if you ask they could probably chase your own kitten's pedigree back absolutely years - I contacted one when I got my Somalis and she took my pedigrees back to the 1950's! :gasp:

I showed Afghan Hounds in the 70's and even today if someone comes up to me and says they have an Afghan I'm immediately asking who bred it and what lines were behind it - I just can't help it. I don't do that with every pedigree cat, just the breeds I've bred myself and *****, because I learned so much about them many years ago.

So I really think you've misinterpreted my interest (or obsession :lol


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## daikenkai (May 24, 2007)

You're right I probably did misunderstand your interest. I don't think the comment about his Mums breeder helped though!

I'll ask about his lines the next time I go to see him. Still another week to go, I'm counting down the days. lol! I was actually going to be getting a kitten from their show winning female, she is an amazing looking cat! But alas he's the one that really stood out when I got there. Seems to happen a lot when people go to pick kittens, every person that went to put a deposit down on my boy ended up picking a Silver Tabby from his litter instead of him the poor guy. Don't know why as he's gorgeous.


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## daikenkai (May 24, 2007)

Well here's a quick pic I was just sent of him, looking rather confused the wee soul! lol


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

daikenkai said:


> You're right I probably did misunderstand your interest. I don't think the comment about his Mums breeder helped though!


Probably not and with hindsight I shouldn't have made it, but I didn't want to be drawn into a discussion about her, so basically said that was all I was going to say.



daikenkai said:


> Seems to happen a lot when people go to pick kittens, every person that went to put a deposit down on my boy ended up picking a Silver Tabby from his litter instead of him the poor guy. Don't know why as he's gorgeous.


Sadly that happens in most breeds - the ones that catch the eye always go first and particularly where the silver gene is present. In a litter of various coloured Siamese, the seal points tend to always sell first and with my Somalis if there was a silver in the litter, that one was always chosen first too!

Sad I think really!


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## daikenkai (May 24, 2007)

That's alright, I don't mind who his mother came from to be honest as long as his breeders are nice people who look after their babies! lol

I don't understand why people jump on the silvers either. They're pretty cats don't get me wrong but to me he was the best looking out of the whole litter!


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## pink lady (Jul 2, 2008)

Congrat's he is lovely, I would love my next cat to be a **** :flrt:


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## yardy (Sep 9, 2009)

Had to look at this as I love Maine *****. Interesting discussion going on there-I don't know anything about their pedigree lines but I love the big boys after being brought up with one who was a farm cat crossed to a pedigree longhair-obviously not a deliberate cross! He weighed in at 16lb in his prime, was gorgeous and fuelled my love of big domestic cats. The biggest Maine **** that I have met was 9.5 kilos & called Harrison, what a stunner.


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## Charlibob (Jun 21, 2008)

daikenkai said:


> Well here's a quick pic I was just sent of him, looking rather confused the wee soul! lol
> 
> image


Ain't he cute :flrt::flrt:

Tbh you won't really know how big he'll get until he is actually fully grown, I was given a chart with Jimmy's weight on it and told his adult weight should be around 6/7kg. He came from a litter of 7 with an average (for MC standards) sized mum and dad but at 10 months old he was 7kg and approx 43inches long (he tries to eat the tape measure so its a right challenge :lol2. I didn't realise how big he was until I joined the MC forum and looked through all the measurements and weights!!


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

yardy said:


> Interesting discussion going on there-I don't know anything about their pedigree lines but I love the big boys after being brought up with one who was a farm cat crossed to a pedigree longhair-obviously not a deliberate cross!


Interesting, because that's what Maine ***** are, pure and simple, a farm cat that evolved the coat it did to survive the cold winters in Maine.

Long before cat shows, farmers used to show their ***** at agricultural shows way back in the mid-late 1800s and were very proud of them. 

Then when cats shows took off they were very popular until persians were imported from Britain in the early 1900s and the breed fell into disfavour and basically became kind of extinct, because no-one showed or specifically bred them because there was basically no market for selling them.

Then a group of people decided to bring back their own native breed and they basically went out to farms and on the streets to find cats that fitted the description of ***** and began a breeding programme to bring them back into popularity and these were known as "foundation cats" because they were of totally unknown parentage.

One of these early breeders told me in America, that one of the problems we had in Britain was that we started importing them before the breed was truly 'fixed' to the beautiful cats you see today, which is why the original ***** being shown here in the 80s and early 90s were by no means the size of the ones you see today.

Lecture over - sorry! :blush:


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## daikenkai (May 24, 2007)

Charlibob said:


> Ain't he cute :flrt::flrt:
> 
> Tbh you won't really know how big he'll get until he is actually fully grown, I was given a chart with Jimmy's weight on it and told his adult weight should be around 6/7kg. He came from a litter of 7 with an average (for MC standards) sized mum and dad but at 10 months old he was 7kg and approx 43inches long (he tries to eat the tape measure so its a right challenge :lol2. I didn't realise how big he was until I joined the MC forum and looked through all the measurements and weights!!


Well of course my hope is he will be a big lad, don't think anyone gets a Maine **** and hopes it stays small. lol! His Mum is very big compared to all the other females I've seen. Just have to wait and see I suppose! lol


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

Charlibob said:


> Tbh you won't really know how big he'll get until he is actually fully grown, I was given a chart with Jimmy's weight on it and told his adult weight should be around 6/7kg. He came from a litter of 7 with an average (for MC standards) sized mum and dad but at 10 months old he was 7kg and approx 43inches long (he tries to eat the tape measure so its a right challenge :lol2. I didn't realise how big he was until I joined the MC forum and looked through all the measurements and weights!!


Jimmy's still got a bit of growing to do yet! :lol2: 

***** don't mature until they are 4 year old, although after a year it's mainly just 'filling out', but watch his belly :lol:

A **** should never be fat - the weight in a **** should be the boning not fat.


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## Rackie (Jan 30, 2011)

I bet you're very excited! I can't wait until I get some Maine *****!


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## Nix (Jan 23, 2008)

I'd pick a red over a silver **** anyday. Feorag, can you recommend any **** breeders here in the UK? We were thinking of a **** as company for our (neutered) mackerel tabby and white moggie Keiko. She is a large playful cat. Aged 6 now and gets on well with other cats..


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

I'm out of touch with a lot of the **** breeders nowadays, because I don't show any more and there are new breeders coming into the fancy every day.

It's very difficult to recommend someone I don't know personally and of course breed clubs cannot personally inspect every member's premises so even breeders who are on the breeders' list of a breed club aren't always good, reliable breeders. I know in my own breed who I would recommend and who I personally wouldn't touch with a bargepole, irrespective of how many champions there are in the kitten's pedigree etc etc, but I don't really move in **** circles any more.

I can find out through my sources whether a breeder is a 'good' breeder though, if you find a kitten you like the look of.

My first stop would be here though - Index This was the first club set up in the UK for Maine ***** and a lot of the committee are still people I know personally and would recommend.


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