On keeping the breed whole

[SARAH: one or two sentences on how you came to Maine Coons.]

A Maine Coon should look and behave like a Maine Coon — [SARAH: the specific qualities you're selecting for: size, temperament, coat, ear set, whatever matters most to you]. That sounds obvious. It isn't. A breed can drift a long way in a few generations when the people breeding it are selecting for what sells rather than what lasts.

Every cat here is screened before it is bred. [SARAH: your testing protocol — HCM echo frequency, which genetic panels, which registry.] Results are on each cat's page, with the dates, so you can see for yourself how current they are.

On availability

We keep a small programme deliberately. Most kittens go to pet homes, and that's the right outcome for them. In a given litter there may be one kitten with the structure and temperament to go on breeding — sometimes none. We would rather place nobody than place the wrong cat.

That means the waitlist moves slowly. [SARAH: rough expectation — months? a year?] If you're in a hurry, we're probably not the right cattery, and we'd rather say so now.