Breeders Profile

Brilthor Maine Coons

Name:

All photos courtesy of Suzy Slade (right, with son Lex).

Tell us a bit about you:
Married for more years than we care to remember, our four children are now settled and most have children of their own (six grandchildren so far), so we can devote our time to our great passion - CATS!  They have always figured in our lives, but we will admit now to being totally addicted to Maine Coons. Shortly after we moved to Scotland we began breeding Coonies as a serious hobby; just half a dozen were planned, but how can one resist 'just one more'? We even moved a couple of years ago to a listed building (circa 1780) just so that we would have an adjacent stone barn to convert into apartments for our boys, and if we didn't spend so much time with our 'furry family' we'd probably have finished the restoration work by now!

Why did you choose your breed(s)?
Ernest (left) first came across a silver tabby male Maine Coon whilst attending a seminar with the Sussex Constabulary in Lewis, Sussex in 1990, and talked of one day owning one - nearly six years later, with the children starting to leave the nest, and the majority of our rescued cats and dogs no longer with us, I was finally in a position to start looking.  After making phone calls to seven breeders nationwide, I found a silver tabby female was available - just eight miles along the coast at Kittycoonz (Dawn Talman).  A visit proved to be 'love at first sight' and Ernest had his birthday present, who is still with us, purring beside me as I type!

Why/how did you start breeding?
Dawn Talman talked us into it really; although we'd not considered such a hobby, it did seem a fairly natural progression from the 'rescuing' with our friend Alison of the Hastings branch of the RSPCA.

Why did you choose your prefix?
The very first pedigree cat that 'owned us' was an Egyptian Mau, whose pregnant mother was imported from the USA by Ernest's father.  We called him Mr Bilbo Baggins as 'The Hobbit' was the children's bedtime storybook at the time. Tolkien has remained a firm favourite with the whole family since then so we chose Brilthor, which means 'glittering torrent', because we planned, originally, to specialize in silvers.

When were your most memorable occasions as a breeder?
Without sounding too much like a cliche, every litter is a memorable occasion, and every wonderful new home that we find, with great 'new friends' who love our Coonies as much as we do.  Right - Theo and Hoigan, two boys we prepared earlier!

Who were/are the most memorable cats you've had?
How can we possibly pick out a few, there've been so many ... the cats that we had as children; Old Nick, a shorthaired classic tabby who definitely survived more than his nine lives; Snowy, a longhaired deaf white who helped Ernest through his years without sight as a child; Mr Baggins, of course, who ruled our home, as our children grew up, with a definite air of royalty about him; Precious (aka Kittycoonz Yankee Doodle, left)
who founded most of our lines and is my devoted companion, despite being bought for Ernest - and just about every breeding cat that we've had, all being such individual characters.

What are your hopes for the future of your breed/your breeding programme?
To continue sharing our lives/breeding with such majestic, sometimes manic, creatures, keeping their wonderful temperaments and good health. Perhaps as time goes on there will be a definitive test for Feline HCM, so that nobody will lose their beloved Maine Coon (or any other cat come to that) to it, suddenly at a very young age, ever again.

Is there anything else you'd like to mention?
A big thank you to Dawn Talman (Kittycoonz), who got us 'hooked'; to Pamela Eglintine (Caramazza), who has been our saviour in moments of panic, etc, and who allowed us to have Caramazza Gandalf, our gorgeous silver stud boy, right; and to all those wonderful Maine Coon breeders who have trusted us with their kittens/cats.

Suzy Slade

March 2008