OUR STORY
It all began with Princess Celeste begging for a kitten. We all love cats and no one was apposed to getting a kitten. We have had barn cats, stray cats, and even Persian cats. I’ve taken in my share of feral cats and even grabbed up a kitten or two in store parking lots and headed straight to the vet for check up, shots, and got them altered. It was nothing new for us to get a cat. We decided that this time, we were going to get something really special. My husband, John made mention a few times that he really liked the look of a Maine Coon. After very little deliberation, everyone agreed that this was the breed to own! We searched the net for the best breeder in the US and spent so much time looking at websites, Facebook pages, and photos. It was decided that we would buy from outside of the US. The reason was pretty simple. We are not a greedy family that plays into competition and contracts telling us what we can and cannot do with an animal that we purchase as our own. We decided that if we buy a cat, there will be no restrictions and it will be health tested before it arrives here in the US. It was a gamble as there are language barriers and scammers, as well as simple trust issues. We lucked out or should I say, we were simply BLESSED with the outcome! It was a lot of work and not everything went smooth but we are happy with our cats.
Our first purchase was supposed to be for one female cat. However, Pawzilla kept popping up and stole my heart. What the heck, why buy just one when you can get two? So we picked another cat and that was Sushi for Celeste. Well, this did not make a couple of little girls very happy. Rory and Bella (the twins) each wanted a kitty too! No one wanted my favorite female from that same breeder but I quickly talked Rory into her! So it was settled, Sashimi was decided upon and was going to be owned by Rory. Bella “thought” she was getting the red kitty (Pawzilla). Little did we know, that would change the very day that they arrived at our home (then)in St. Louis. As soon as John saw this cat, he said nope, he’s mine and he named him “Pawzilla”. Notice, Pawzilla's name does not go along with our "fish theme" lol. BUT, it totally suits him!
Back to square one again and we needed to find Bella a kitty! To make a long drawn out story short, we found Tuna, a breeding age female that we loved the look of! We purchased her in the middle of moving from St. Louis MO to Dunlap IL. I picked her up at O’Hare airport in Chicago. It took a couple of weeks for Tuna to adjust but now she is one of the most loving cats! We are extremely pleased with all four of our babies! To read more about the fab-four, read their page and view photos.
We now have had a more than a few litters of kittens as well as years of experience behind us and although it is a LOT of work, we truly enjoy it. We are so in love with these cats. It is extremely hard not to want to keep every kitten but that is not a good idea…lol When you sit down to play with a litter of 5 week old kittens, they just steal your heart!
It all began with Princess Celeste begging for a kitten. We all love cats and no one was apposed to getting a kitten. We have had barn cats, stray cats, and even Persian cats. I’ve taken in my share of feral cats and even grabbed up a kitten or two in store parking lots and headed straight to the vet for check up, shots, and got them altered. It was nothing new for us to get a cat. We decided that this time, we were going to get something really special. My husband, John made mention a few times that he really liked the look of a Maine Coon. After very little deliberation, everyone agreed that this was the breed to own! We searched the net for the best breeder in the US and spent so much time looking at websites, Facebook pages, and photos. It was decided that we would buy from outside of the US. The reason was pretty simple. We are not a greedy family that plays into competition and contracts telling us what we can and cannot do with an animal that we purchase as our own. We decided that if we buy a cat, there will be no restrictions and it will be health tested before it arrives here in the US. It was a gamble as there are language barriers and scammers, as well as simple trust issues. We lucked out or should I say, we were simply BLESSED with the outcome! It was a lot of work and not everything went smooth but we are happy with our cats.
Our first purchase was supposed to be for one female cat. However, Pawzilla kept popping up and stole my heart. What the heck, why buy just one when you can get two? So we picked another cat and that was Sushi for Celeste. Well, this did not make a couple of little girls very happy. Rory and Bella (the twins) each wanted a kitty too! No one wanted my favorite female from that same breeder but I quickly talked Rory into her! So it was settled, Sashimi was decided upon and was going to be owned by Rory. Bella “thought” she was getting the red kitty (Pawzilla). Little did we know, that would change the very day that they arrived at our home (then)in St. Louis. As soon as John saw this cat, he said nope, he’s mine and he named him “Pawzilla”. Notice, Pawzilla's name does not go along with our "fish theme" lol. BUT, it totally suits him!
Back to square one again and we needed to find Bella a kitty! To make a long drawn out story short, we found Tuna, a breeding age female that we loved the look of! We purchased her in the middle of moving from St. Louis MO to Dunlap IL. I picked her up at O’Hare airport in Chicago. It took a couple of weeks for Tuna to adjust but now she is one of the most loving cats! We are extremely pleased with all four of our babies! To read more about the fab-four, read their page and view photos.
We now have had a more than a few litters of kittens as well as years of experience behind us and although it is a LOT of work, we truly enjoy it. We are so in love with these cats. It is extremely hard not to want to keep every kitten but that is not a good idea…lol When you sit down to play with a litter of 5 week old kittens, they just steal your heart!
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The twins were still sleeping in toddler beds when we first got their kittens. I think the cats today would love to have their own toddler bed to sleep in! They wouldn't leave room for a kid!
How we chose our first MC cats and how we got them!
We chose our Maine Coons by first, finding a trustworthy and reputable breeder. Her personality was pleasant and she went above and beyond for us. In today’s world, too many people treat others as if they are doing us a favor by speaking to us. That is something we wanted to get away from and we had success in finding the right person!
In my opinion, there are two kinds of animal breeders. There are the responsible ones who make sure to buy healthy breeders, continue to health test and feed the best, as well as house them in a superb environment and love them. Then there are irresponsible breeders of animals who do not care about the health, skip most vetting, and do not spend the time or the money on health testing. Those are the ones who price the kittens lower and sell them quick. The problem with some responsible breeders, again, in my opinion… they are so set in their ways, controlling over something they have SOLD, and are extremely judgmental and controlling over a kitten that they YES, brought into the world, but NO longer own. There has to be a happy medium here where breeders realize that they were beginners once too. Not everyone has a mentor available to help and not everyone is out to taint the breed. This attitude is unfortunately in EVERY single industry of the world today. People have become mean and do not realize how sad their words, actions, and behavior are. We are hoping to be one of the few who stand out and do it right. Pawzilla, Sushi, and Sashimi came from a cattery in Russia. We did not pick them because of their size like a lot of people do when buying European lines. We wanted health tested, healthy, papered, Maine Coon cats from a reputable, ethical, loving breeder. This breeder proved quickly that she was kind hearted, did not treat us disrespectful, was on top of things and handled everything quickly. Even with the language barrier, she was amazing. Our only problem we had with her is that she omitted health testing results on our girls. This has been a struggle but we are overcoming it.
Our business transaction working with Tuna’s breeder did not go near as smooth but it was a success in the end. We are extremely pleased with this amazing cat! She too is from Russia. Now that we got everything in order, her breeder has been pleasant and kept in touch with us. It is her cat that has ginormous litters!!! We had another issue with this breeder as well on omitting health test results. This seemed to be a pattern with the Russian Maine Coon breeders for us but we are happy to say that it did end here. We were more careful on all purchases after our first four Maine Coon cats.
I wanted to make sure we add a shout out to the amazing couriers that were used for all of our cats! Savely is the Russian courier based out of Chicago IL. He and his team were simply amazing! They did the best job, went above and beyond what I even asked for! One time it was a hand delivery service to our home in St. Louis. The other time it was getting the cat from JFK in New York to Chicago OHare for me to pick up in person. Both times went off without a hitch and I am very thankful to them all! Also, Julia from Moscow….she shipped the cats all from Moscow to New York for us and she too was the best, most professional courier and is who gave us Savely’s name. She saved us on our purchase of Tuna as well! If it weren’t for her, we may not have been able to have gotten Tuna after paying for her. Lots of love to Julia!!!
Yeti was brought over to us by Maksim Verzilin of Russia and he was wonderful to work with! We have been very blessed with all of the couriers we have used and I would totally use him again!
We used the wonderful service of Tristan Anderson who is based out of the US when we purchased Stetson. He flew over to Norway and picked up Stetson from his breeder who he knew personally. He hand delivered him to us at our home in Illinois and we couldn't have asked him for anything more, he was great!
Pawzilla (the second) was brought to us through a company in Russia called Pet Trip. They are a team of different couriers and we had an excellent experience using them!
Our Megalodon "Megs" was brought over by us! We made a weekend mini vacation and went over to pick her up ourselves and it was totally worth it! We got to meet her breeder and had a great time.
In my opinion, there are two kinds of animal breeders. There are the responsible ones who make sure to buy healthy breeders, continue to health test and feed the best, as well as house them in a superb environment and love them. Then there are irresponsible breeders of animals who do not care about the health, skip most vetting, and do not spend the time or the money on health testing. Those are the ones who price the kittens lower and sell them quick. The problem with some responsible breeders, again, in my opinion… they are so set in their ways, controlling over something they have SOLD, and are extremely judgmental and controlling over a kitten that they YES, brought into the world, but NO longer own. There has to be a happy medium here where breeders realize that they were beginners once too. Not everyone has a mentor available to help and not everyone is out to taint the breed. This attitude is unfortunately in EVERY single industry of the world today. People have become mean and do not realize how sad their words, actions, and behavior are. We are hoping to be one of the few who stand out and do it right. Pawzilla, Sushi, and Sashimi came from a cattery in Russia. We did not pick them because of their size like a lot of people do when buying European lines. We wanted health tested, healthy, papered, Maine Coon cats from a reputable, ethical, loving breeder. This breeder proved quickly that she was kind hearted, did not treat us disrespectful, was on top of things and handled everything quickly. Even with the language barrier, she was amazing. Our only problem we had with her is that she omitted health testing results on our girls. This has been a struggle but we are overcoming it.
Our business transaction working with Tuna’s breeder did not go near as smooth but it was a success in the end. We are extremely pleased with this amazing cat! She too is from Russia. Now that we got everything in order, her breeder has been pleasant and kept in touch with us. It is her cat that has ginormous litters!!! We had another issue with this breeder as well on omitting health test results. This seemed to be a pattern with the Russian Maine Coon breeders for us but we are happy to say that it did end here. We were more careful on all purchases after our first four Maine Coon cats.
I wanted to make sure we add a shout out to the amazing couriers that were used for all of our cats! Savely is the Russian courier based out of Chicago IL. He and his team were simply amazing! They did the best job, went above and beyond what I even asked for! One time it was a hand delivery service to our home in St. Louis. The other time it was getting the cat from JFK in New York to Chicago OHare for me to pick up in person. Both times went off without a hitch and I am very thankful to them all! Also, Julia from Moscow….she shipped the cats all from Moscow to New York for us and she too was the best, most professional courier and is who gave us Savely’s name. She saved us on our purchase of Tuna as well! If it weren’t for her, we may not have been able to have gotten Tuna after paying for her. Lots of love to Julia!!!
Yeti was brought over to us by Maksim Verzilin of Russia and he was wonderful to work with! We have been very blessed with all of the couriers we have used and I would totally use him again!
We used the wonderful service of Tristan Anderson who is based out of the US when we purchased Stetson. He flew over to Norway and picked up Stetson from his breeder who he knew personally. He hand delivered him to us at our home in Illinois and we couldn't have asked him for anything more, he was great!
Pawzilla (the second) was brought to us through a company in Russia called Pet Trip. They are a team of different couriers and we had an excellent experience using them!
Our Megalodon "Megs" was brought over by us! We made a weekend mini vacation and went over to pick her up ourselves and it was totally worth it! We got to meet her breeder and had a great time.
About us and who we are
My name is Cyndi Collins. I am known to my family as that crazy animal lady! I have had a lifelong animal obsession. When I was a child, my nickname was "cat momma". I grew up in the country but not on a farm. There were no kids around to play with so I spent my time riding my bike down the dirt road, hanging with my brothers, playing with my dolls, and last but CERTAINLY not least, playing with my cat. The neighbor had very run down, rickety barn that was absolutely decrepit in looks. I was in no way supposed to be in there but I knew that is where all of the stray cats lived. I would stand in there quietly for hours waiting for baby kittens to start coming out and I would catch them! Of course I was bit several times but I didn't care. I would sneak them through my bedroom window and play with them for hours. Months later, my mom would develop the film from my little camera (old school) and ask me where in the world all these cats came from that were in my bedroom! This was just a little snippet of my past cat loving life.
Today I am a mom, grandmother (MiMi), and wife. My husband John loves our cats and is very involved although he may deny that lol. I catch him loving on the cats and snuggling them as much as I do. He truly loves animals and he always has my back no matter what I need. My oldest daughter is my right hand in everything and the mother to my four grandkids. They are super involved as they are my key social workers! They keep our kittens very socialized! My middle daughter who lives across the US from us has one of our gorgeous kittens and wants another! Our youngest daughter is probably the biggest cat lover and if she didn't have to go away to college soon, she would have them all living in her room that she never leaves (typical teenager lol).
My parents (aka Mama and Papa) are always there when I need help and of course, doing the same thing they did many years ago. They roll their eyes at me every time I come up with a new idea. I will quote my mother all my younger years. "Cyndi, you can have as many animals as you want when you have your own house". I laugh and remind her of that often. They just laugh but I get it honest! Both of my parents love all of my animals.
Above all, the most important thing I want you to know about our family is that we are a God fearing family. Our Lord comes first in everything.
Today I am a mom, grandmother (MiMi), and wife. My husband John loves our cats and is very involved although he may deny that lol. I catch him loving on the cats and snuggling them as much as I do. He truly loves animals and he always has my back no matter what I need. My oldest daughter is my right hand in everything and the mother to my four grandkids. They are super involved as they are my key social workers! They keep our kittens very socialized! My middle daughter who lives across the US from us has one of our gorgeous kittens and wants another! Our youngest daughter is probably the biggest cat lover and if she didn't have to go away to college soon, she would have them all living in her room that she never leaves (typical teenager lol).
My parents (aka Mama and Papa) are always there when I need help and of course, doing the same thing they did many years ago. They roll their eyes at me every time I come up with a new idea. I will quote my mother all my younger years. "Cyndi, you can have as many animals as you want when you have your own house". I laugh and remind her of that often. They just laugh but I get it honest! Both of my parents love all of my animals.
Above all, the most important thing I want you to know about our family is that we are a God fearing family. Our Lord comes first in everything.
My oldest daughter Kelsi is the one behind the camera most of the time. If the photos are good...it is for sure her work. She has four amazing kiddos that our cattery would not exist without! Of all of our animals, the Maine Coon cats are Kelsi's favorites and as much complaining as she has done all her life over my animals, you will never hear a complaint about the cats! She loves these beautiful cats and helps me with anything related to them. She keeps up with our social media most of the time as well. As a very busy mom, she is still always there to have my back.
Health Testing through Optimal Selection
Our Maine Coon Cat DNA results
Unlike what we thought, our first cats were health tested in Russia but we did not get told that three of them were carriers of certain risks. Our male was clear on everything which means we can breed a carrier to him and not worry of any disease affected kittens being born. A carrier may or may not pass on the trait.
Since we received the unclear results on our first three girls, we have only added 100% clear cats to our program. We have clear results on all four new cats in the bottom row but retesting so we can share the results. Please be patient while we wait for these to come in so we can post.
Click the button links below to view each full DNA health testing results from our submissions to Optimal Selection.
Unlike what we thought, our first cats were health tested in Russia but we did not get told that three of them were carriers of certain risks. Our male was clear on everything which means we can breed a carrier to him and not worry of any disease affected kittens being born. A carrier may or may not pass on the trait.
Since we received the unclear results on our first three girls, we have only added 100% clear cats to our program. We have clear results on all four new cats in the bottom row but retesting so we can share the results. Please be patient while we wait for these to come in so we can post.
Click the button links below to view each full DNA health testing results from our submissions to Optimal Selection.