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We (Herb and Brooke Berger) founded Purricoon Cattery (CFA cattery number 35865) in Brentwood, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, in 1980; after more than 25 years we are still showing and breeding Maine Coon cats. Maine Coon cats were hard to find in 1980, but we found Tanstaafl in Memphis and purchased a female brown patched tabby with white from Beth Hicks. She was our first grand champion, and we were well and truly hooked on the cat fancy. In December, 1997, after reaching the age when snow and ice seemed unattractive, we moved south, first to Pensacola, Florida and 3 years later to Lillian, Alabama. Lillian is just outside of Pensacola and we were able to find nearly 3 fenced acres so that our dogs would have room to roam. (If you are fond of toy breeds see GulfCoastDogs.com) Initially we decided that living in Pensacola would preclude showing cats, but after more than a year of withdrawal from the cat fancy we obtained from J-Nine Felines (Janine Nydegger, Springfield, IL) a lovely CFA grand champion male brown tabby Maine Coon, and once again we were off to cat shows. We knew it was foolish to keep an unaltered male as a house pet so we once again returned to Janine and obtained from her another female, as well as one from Alexis Mitchell (Syracoon, Topeka, Kansas) and Nancy and John Hitzman (Acadia Coons, St. Louis, Missouri). This allowed us to regain some of our original lines almost immediately. Now, as in years past, we work primarily with brown and red tabbies, although we occasionally have silvers, with and without white. Our philosophy regarding breeding cats has not changed since 1980: we believe in placing our kittens in good homes, regardless of the quality of the kitten/cat (show, breeder or pet). As a practical matter this means that show quality kittens are often placed as pets, and that others bitten by the show bug are able to show Purricoon cats. We do not attend cat shows as often as when we lived in the Midwest but we can be found perhaps once a month spending a weekend at a CFA show, sometimes in the south and sometimes in the Midwest as we can often combine a “cat weekend” with visits to adult children and grandchildren (14 of them so far!). Our kittens are sold with a contract, fully immunized, a health guarantee and spay/neuter agreement for kittens sold as pets, usually between 12 and 16 weeks of age. A non refundable deposit will hold a specific kitten until it is old enough to go to its forever home. We do not like to promise specific kittens to new homes until the babies are at least 8 weeks of age. Maine Coon kittens generally develop slowly and we are better able to assess the personality of the kittens as they grow older. We breed first for temperament and then for “type” because we believe that an outgoing temperament in the gentle giant breed is of critical importance. Large cats that bite are not suited to live happily with children and other pets, nor are they welcomed in show halls. Our cats and kittens are truly gentle. While our children are adults, we make certain that our kittens are frequently handled by children. As we have a kennel as well as a cattery (and a Quaker, blue front Amazon and scarlet Macaw parrot) the kittens are accustomed to dogs and birds also. The kittens run loose as soon as they are no longer in need of the protection of private quarters. We feed several types of commercially available food, Purina One, Royal Canin, Iams and Eukanuba, so that kittens will not have difficulty adjusting to their new homes. We are happy to provide guidance and advice to new owners. We can be reached by telephone or email. If you call or write on a weekend, do not be surprised if we do not answer as we may be out of town to a cat show or camping in our RV. (And, yes, when we go camping we are accompanied by both cats and dogs. Our friends invariably ask how many we have with us and come to visit the babies). |
| Lillian, Alabama 36549 251-962-7369 purri_coon@yahoo.com About Us |
