Breeders Profile

WattsWoodKats Maine Coons

Name:

Photos courtesy of Eric Moss (right, with bovine companion!) except this one, which is by Jack Watkins.

Tell us a bit about you:
For many years Margaret (bottom right, with Wattswoodkats Blue Belle Harmony) worked as a Teacher and I worked in the computer/IIT industry in rural Hertfordshire and Suffolk. I also helped out on our friends livestock farm and enjoyed working with cattle. About twenty years ago I had the opportunity to buy a farm ideally suited to breeding our own herd of pedigree cattle. In the early years we both kept our jobs and slowly established our herd, farming before and after work and at the weekends. As the farming work load increased we gave up our jobs and now farm nearly 500 acres. We have always had both dogs and cats on the farm; currently we have an Airedale terrier. When our old gray tabby farm cat died of old age we acquired a semi-feral young tabby cat, but sadly he was hit by a train and the vets could not save him.

We therefore decided that any replacement cat would have to be an indoor cat. Margaret suggested that we looked at Maine Coons, a breed that I had never heard of - and like many others, our Maine Coons have multiplied!  Besides our bought-in stud boy, Pampushka Murphy Wattswood (left), we now have four daughters/granddaughters as breeding queens and our young boy Wattswoodkats Black Magic (below right).

Why did you choose your breed(s)?
After looking at several different breeds we went to see Rosemary Sayer of Ruskita Maine Coons. As I sat down this huge red boy joined me and stayed with me. I knew that for me it had to be Maine Coons, Margaret felt the same and after 5 years or so with Maine Coons we wouldn’t want it any other way.

Why/how did you start breeding?
Given that the cat would be a house cat we decided from the start that we wanted a breeding queen. As pedigree cattle breeders genetics has always interested us, so it just seemed natural to breed pedigree cats as a hobby.

Why did you choose your prefix?
Watts Wood is the name of one of the woods on our farm and the prefix of our first queen was Witchewood so we felt that the “Wood” association was appropriate.

When were your most memorable occasions as a breeder?
The first memorable moment was our first litter. Over the years we have had several hundred calves born on the farm and I have pulled out a number of calves when necessary, so it was easy to recognise the imminent arrival of our first litter. When this diminutive little kitten started to emerge my thoughts were how on earth do you help something so tiny and fragile? However, left to nature, five kittens were born and raised. We kept one kitten, Wattswoodkats Razzmatazz (below left), who went on to get a BIS kitten - and that was our second memorable moment, our first real show success.

Razz, as she is known, is now an International Champion and mother of Wattswoodkats Black Magic (above right) who now has three BIS to his credit - which brings us to our third most memorable moment; he won the FB Best All Breed Junior of the year for 2008 – a hard act for us to follow for the second generation of our own breeding!

Who were/are the most memorable cats you've had?
So far it has to be Razz and Black Magic, they are both real characters and have wonderful temperaments besides being lovely large well boned Maine Coons.

What are your hopes for the future of your breed/your breeding programme?
We need to bring in fresh genetics to prevent inbreeding which probably means looking to the continent for outcrossing. I hope that judges will avoid extremes when judging, and that old lines are not lost.

Is there anything else you'd like to mention?
We hope to be able to build a large outside run connected to the house for the girls next year. This will give them a safe but far more natural environment – and perhaps room for another Maine Coon or two ...

Eric & Margaret Moss

April 2009