Last month I took a cat back that I had sold as a kitten two
years ago because his owner could no longer keep him due to her divorce and
personal upheaval. I posted Rudy’s
availability on Facebook: “Red tabby neutered male Maine Coon, great
personality, needs a stable home” along with a cute picture of handsome
Rudy. As it so often happens with a
Maine Coon, I was flooded with inquiries along with comments on Facebook, most
wishing they could have him or good wishes on finding the right home for
Rudy. One follower questioned me, “Why
don’t you just keep him yourself?”
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| Rudy in my house |
And I wondered, briefly, why not? Rudy gets along well with others, he’s very
friendly and it would be one way of insuring that the poor guy doesn’t have to
move again. I calculated that Rudy had
moved at least five times in his two short years so stability was a priority.
But I don’t allow it, not for my family or for the cat. As a cat breeder, we have to make the hard
decision to let our cats go to pet homes after we have stopped using them for
breeding. It seems a bit cold sometimes,
but I learned the hard way after I kept my first Maine Coon, Sassy. I felt somehow that I would be betraying
Sassy if I didn’t look after her for the rest of her life. It didn’t go well.
Sassy had pissues (peeing outside the box) as a breeding
female. Clothes baskets were her
favorite toilet. Many queens have this
problem, especially when they are in heat.
Well, it’s not really a problem unless you are a human and also don’t
want to cage your cats. Even after Sassy
was spayed at the age of five years, she had pissues. I tried isolating her in our half-bathroom
with 3 different litters and boxes, but she still refused usage. The best I could get from Sassy was to leave
out an empty litter box and most of the time she’d pee there. Sassy also became unhappy. Her job as a mother was no longer needed and
Sassy was a wonderful mom. I tried to
tell her to help out as resident grandmother, but the success was minimal. Kittens were brats and they quickly tired of
Sassy’s “Back in my day” stories.
Because of my problems with Sassy as a retired queen, I
vowed to place all retiring females in pet homes. This has worked. If a cat (male or female) had pissues as a
breeder, that stopped once they got out of my home, away from the
competition. Their hormones settled and
new, less offensive habits were formed in the new home. They receive more individual attention. Their coats and size grow and the new owners
have a beautiful, loving addition to the family. For 2014, I've retired Sally, Olivia, Tippet and Sunday. Lulu will retire after her next litter. I've also kept two female kittens for breeding and am considering a third.
Male breeding cats have their own set of issues. Not all
spray, but when they do, it’s hard to ignore. The good ones (and there have been a few, it's largely a hereditary behavior) live
in our bedroom unless we have newborn kittens.
Male urine changes aroma when they hit puberty, one of the signs we look
for when trying to determine if he’s ready to try breeding. Maine Coon boys are slow to mature, some
taking up to two years before they show an interest in a girl. The conversations among breeders can be
pretty explicit.
“He doesn't have a clue. She's writhing around like a hussy and he just thinks she wants to play.”
“He enjoys practicing, but he’s still shooting blanks.”
“I’ve put him on top of her, catnip on her neck, showed him
dirty movies, played sexy music…and still he’d rather eat than breed.”
Because of the strong aroma of male cat urine, many breeders
have to cage or confine them to a room.
This is especially true of the “hosers”, males who feel the need to
claim their space outside the box on a regular basis. Hosers typically don’t remain working studs
for long. In my house, they’re bred a
few times, then neutered and placed so they can live the rest of their lives as
beloved pets. The non-spraying males
work longer simply because they’re easier to keep.
After living with several other cats, showing and making
babies, my Maine Coons deserve to spend the rest of its life as a spoiled pet,
free from the side-effects of their hormones.
I have only three non-breeding cats now that Sassy passed away from
cancer last year; Bubba, my daughter’s crazy-ass European Burmese who was
purchased as a pet in the first place; Pipsqueak, a red Maine Coon spay who was
never bred because she has aerotic stenosis and wasn’t supposed to live past
the age of three (she’s five now); and Bugger, my former stud male who didn’t
retire until he was older and I felt it would be too hard for him to adjust to
a move at that age.
Bubba, Pipsqueak and Bugger.
Obviously, we only keep the non-breeding cats that have most
embarrassing nicknames, just to amuse ourselves by calling them. Normal-named cats don’t make the cut.
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Bubba the ultimate Diva
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The other, more practical, reason for placing retirees is to
keep my numbers down. Keep in mind we also have chickens and two dogs. I’ve been breeding
Maine Coons for almost 13 years. If I kept
each one after it was retired, I estimate I’d have in excess of 40 cats. In
terms of breeding cats, I aim for six girls and two boys. If I keep a kitten, I have plans to re-home
an adult within the year. I miss some of
them tremendously, but it’s not like I don’t have other cats to replace that spot on my lap.
How long I keep a cat for breeding depends upon many
factors. I read several years ago that
when a queen starts producing smaller litters, it’s time for her to
retire. Sassy went from three to four
kittens per litter to singletons. Kitty
menopause was approaching for her.
Some cats just aren’t good at living in a cattery
environments. These cats may have pissues,
fight, or are easily bullied. These cats
often have to be confined away from others. We have a built in cage in our basement that
has cat-door access to an enclosed outdoor run so that helps, but still, I
don’t have that much space. I also have
to try to appease my family with some designated cat-free zones. My cattery environment is not rows of cages
or an out- building; they live in my house, separated by doors to rooms. All of the females except the new moms run at large in the
house. The two boys have their own spaces
to eliminate “whoops” breedings.
A cat whose heart ultrasound is questionable will not be
bred, petted out to avoid possibly passing on genetic disease to
offspring. Likewise if I find out it could be passing on other health issues that the cat itself doesn't have, like gingivitis. If the cat just doesn’t
develop into a good example of the breed, I’m not so likely to keep it,
especially if I have something better.
Reproduction issues in cats, like in humans, can be
common. However, the veterinary medicine
for feline reproductions isn’t nearly as advanced so we breeders are often
witness to the heartbreak of stillborn or fading kittens. My female cats are normally given two chances
at producing healthy, viable kittens.
Failing that, she will have a shorter breeding career rather than risk her
health and future little lives. Pregnancy
can be complicated and some bodies just aren’t meant to make babies. When it works right, raising kittens is a beautiful miracle. When it doesn't, I like to limit the emotional toll it takes on the mother and me.
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| Sunday with her litter of nine. |
Another big consideration for breeders is the usefulness of
the pedigree behind the cat. I don’t
like to have more than two stud cats at one time. If I keep daughters out of Stud Number One, Levi,
with the intention of breeding those girls to Stud Number Two, Wilkinson,
that’s great. But what happens with the
next generation if I then want to keep a female out of Wilkinson? This isn't West Virginia. Sure, I can take her to a fellow breeder’s
stud, but that can be more complicated. Plus, I’m further limited with Wilkinson
because he’s a brother to three of my queens.
It’s already in the plans to retire Wilky at the ripe age of two years as
soon as my new stud is purchased (he’s still waiting to be born as of this
writing).
Those are all examples of why I would retire a cat a bit earlier. If the cat passes all of the above tests for
health, type, personality, good cattery cat and usable pedigree, she or he will
probably stay here as a breeding cat until four or five years of age. We love them while they’re here, and after
they retire, we allow someone else to love them too. I find homes for cats I have to take back for
the same reason; they deserve more attention than what I can give them. Rudy now lives with previous
kitten buyers and their other Dracoonfly cat, Camden. Rudy has stability and Camden has a
coonpanion.
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| Rudy in his forever home with Camden |
