Nordic Leon Maine Coon Cattery

 

 

 

 

 

Finally my dream to start a Maine Coon cattery has come true. I live in the countryside, south-east part of Norway together with my dog and our cats. I have always had animals and love them very much. To me they mean a great deal and I can not imagine my life without them. Other than spending time with my furry friends I am educated to be a social worker, but I got tangled up in the workers union a few years ago. I am also engaged in photogrgaphy.

 

My cattery is of the small kind focusing on quality more than quantity. The cats live with me, and have access to a safe area in my garden. They are not allowed to free-roam (read further about our story regarding this).

 

I will only have one or two litters per year using only what I consider to be the best lines. As we all know, there is no such thing as the perfect cat, but we always hope to get the best of both parents.  All my cats will be tested for common genetic diseases where it is possible to test. As a breeder I am commited to be serviceminded and open, so you will feel 100 % safe about buying a kitten from my cattery. But please read my conditioons before requesting a kitten.

 

My story with cats and Maine Coon is not of the brightest so far. I have always had cats and love animals alot. I have lost 5 cats (of mixed breed), and two gorgeous Maine Coon boys, and the last one, Leon, was so much more than just a cat to me so I named our cattery after him. If you want to know more about this story, please keep reading. 

 

My first meeting with Maine Coon was at a friends place. This huge, slow, gentle furball really caught my interest. Not long after I had my own Maine Coon boy, Lukas. I had no idea of breedstandard or any thoughts of breeding at all at this point, I just wanted to have a Maine Coon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lukas was free to go in and out as he pleased, as is the most common way to keep a cat in Norway. I lived in an area where I thought it would be safe for cats to roam. When Lukas was one year he was hit by a car. The man who had hit him took him to the vet who called me and told me what had happened. The vet had to amputate his tail, because the nerves were damaged in his spine. He could walk and seemed happy after recovery, but his digestivesystem didn't work. He didn't feel it when he had to go to the toilet, so I had to help him several times a day. We hoped the amputation of the tail would help the nerves to grow back and function, but after a month the vet said there is no hope. This is no life for a cat, so I took the hard choice of letting him go. 

 

My forestcat-mix Lucy really missed her friend. So I got her Nelson, also a mix, to keep her company. But the house was still a bit empty without a Maine Coon in it. And Lucy and Nelson didn't really get a long very well. 

I started serching the internet for a new Maine Coon and got in touch with a breeder in Poland. She sent me photos of one available n22 male, and from the first moment I laid eyes on this boy,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was captured and lovestruck. I knew he had to come to live with us. Leon was a true friend, a free spirit, and with a gentle heart. He really set the standard when it comes to temper. I loved him with all my heart, and still do. He wanted to be around all the time, both inside and outside. Leon and Lucy became very close, and Nelson stopped being mean to Lucy. Leons presence balanced the pack, sort of. And our dog loved him a lot, he even went for walks with me and my dog. By this time I had moved to a house in the countryside, and I considered it safe for all my cats to come and go as they pleased. They never went too far anyway. But one day Leon didn't come home in the evening as he used to. We searched everywhere for him and put posters and flyers in all our neighbours mailboxes. Two days had passed and Leon was nowhere to be seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then I got a call. A man claimed to have seen Leon lying on the side of the road, not too far from where we live. I put on my shoes and jacket and went outside to search for him. My whole body ached and I was very scared of what I might find. Still hoping he was wrong and certain that I would see my boy again. It was a dark evening so I had to use a torch to be able to see. I was extremely stressed out and shouldn't have gone to the road by myself. My world collapsed as I was standing by the road and i saw his little collar in the road. I knew my Leon was gone, and that I would never hold him, cuddle him or smell his silky fur again. I was torn. The day after we found his body on the other side of the road down the hill. Somebody had moved him away from the road. I felt so angry, I wrote a piece about it to the newspapers.

 

Regardless of the pain I felt, it was good to find him, and to know he died instantly as he got hit.We buried Leon in our garden in his favorit place. It was so unreal to know that just a couple of days before he died he was playing around in the grass, happy that spring was about to break. I still grieve my boy and I will carry him in my heart forever. No cat will ever replace him, but my cattery will be a tribute and an ode to Leon and I will always aim to have kitten with the same temper as he had. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My cats are no longer allowed to free-roam. I have a safe and spacious place for them in our garden with plenty of activities.