We are a small cattery about 30 kms north of Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand. There are not very many Maine Coon breeders in New Zealand and we saw one for the first time at a show in the town where we live Rangiora in August 2003. This was Murphy who belongs to Vicki Walls of Vladamir Maine Coons, who also lives in the same town.
We were very taken with the breed and then soon found our boy, Oscar (Smorre), in the North Island. After thinking seriously about it for a while we decided to breed this wonderful cat and soon found our girl Whimsey in Australia at Vicki Tuiks cattery Coonhaven. Whimsey joined us in March 2004. We show our cats and have enjoyed their successes so far in the shows. Sadly we lost Whimsey and all her kittens during a very traumatic birth of her first litter. We all miss her every day.
Smorre is now a Gold Double Grand Champion. He has also been awarded many Breeders Awards of Merit for his breeder and so did Whimsey who became a Champion before she died .
Since that time our cattery has grown in size and we now have our wonderful girl Alys Glenwyn of Trappistini from Iris Luff in England and 2 of her daughters, Cassie and Molly as breeding girls. One recent arrival is DD Smash alias Shiningwater Diana from Zena Pigden of Shiningwater Maine Coons in Dunedin.
We also now have another young male as an upcoming stud from Auckland - Kiwicoon's Levi Strauss who is a lovely solid (in every way!) blue boy from Belinda Caminada. We own him in partnership with Vicki Walls of Vladamir cattery here in Rangiora and he lives with us. We are all looking forward to seeing him grow up and how he will do at the shows.
We would like to take the opportunity to thank Vicki(Australia), Iris, Zena and Belinda for entrusting us with these cats and for all their help and support through the good and not so good times.
We also have 2 pet Maine Coons bred by us; my daughter's girl Lucy and our show neuter Tommy who has done extremely well on the show bench in 2005. See our pet's page for photos of these two lovely cats.
We also have two bossy Burmese girls who are pets and think they run our house! A dog, Chloe who is an Australian Kelpie, who thinks she is a Mexican jumping bean and 2 kids, Claire and Marc who still live at home.
Paul is an automotive tutor, an English import, who has lived in NZ for 20+ years. He used to breed Golden Retrievers in England and has had some excellent successes there with his dogs. He is also the techno-whizz and does all the website work, with my input of course!
I am a social worker, who escaped the government system six years ago and I now manage a rural social services agency. I have always had cats, mostly Burmese and moggies, but now I am completely sold on the Coonies, fascinated in their history, their captivating personality and magnificent size.
Paul and I are now both dedicated to furthering this wonderful breed. Our cats are family members first and foremost and live in the house with us and out in their run during the day, commandeer our beds at night, eat the best of tucker and are spoilt rotten!
We are registered with the NZCFA, belong to the Canterbury Long Hair Cat Breeders Association and the Maine Coon Club of NZ. We test for HCM, HD, PKD,Felv, Fiv to ensure the health of our cats and their progeny.