About Me and my husband
First of all I am Alan Milner’s sister. Though we live in GA and Alan in FL we have not had the opportunity to see each other in several years.
My husband Phil and I are registered Maine Coon breeders. We are a very small and non-commercial, closed cattery. It’s a hobby we’ve enjoyed since 2006.
Now, a lot of people have no idea or interest in the Cat Fancy, which is worldwide. Most people if they appear interested at all, assume it is like the AKC dog shows shown on tv. Yes and no. There are no cash prizes when your cat achieves a title, nope, just a ribbon, when dogs achieve a title they do get cash rewards and a ribbon. We have an annual cat show once a year that travels from country to country, and regional shows in every part of the world. We’ve been to shows from FL to Quebec. I went to one in Austria and there are more locations having shows again. Due to Covid it was impossible to keep to the same schedule achieved in other years.
It is NOT a political platform. It’s about the cats! Yep a beauty contest. Every pedigree cat has a specific breed standard. They are judge on a podium individually by a judge. It takes a minimum of 7 years to become an allbreed cat judge, and it’s all on your dollar. We have a website that I keep updated, which shows all of our cats with their titles.
For the past 5 years the “scammers” have found out that people will pay a lot of money for pedigree cats, and have gained a lot of money that made a lot of people very upset. Alan and I tried to get the word out about this a couple of years ago. I have a whole section on our website about this.
Then there are the “backyard breeders”. As a reputable breeder, all breeding cats must be DNA tested and some like Maine Coons, Ragdolls, Norwegian Forest Cats and other breeds also must undergo an annual screening for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM). The test can range $600.00 to 1,200.00 per cat. The DNA tests needed are for HCM, SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy) and Pyruvate kinase (PK) deficiency which is an inherited disease.
Then of course there are New Breeders that charge outrageous prices for these kittens. They may do one DNA test ($40.00 per test, per cat), and then sell the kittens for anywhere from $2,500.00 to $5,000.00. Their interest is not in the welfare of the kittens, it’s how much they can make. When you go this route, you are a business, not a hobbyist. We’ve had kitten buyers come to us from NY,CT, PA, NC, SC, GA, FL, TX. Why so far away, well we stand by our cats and their new owners/family. We do not charge outrageous prices and have been showing since 2006 and breeding since 2008. We are very small with one male and four females. We do not breed a female after a delivery for 12-15 months. Our cats live in our house, in our beds, on the sofa, on the desk, wherever they want to. We keep our male in our bedroom suite and the females have the run of the house. Kittens are born in a nursery and stay with their mother until they are 13-16 weeks old. We don’t keep a waiting list, because it can take 12-18 months to get a kitten from us. When we decide that a kitten is available, that information is posted on our website. Generally within 3 hours of the post we’ve received numerous phone calls, emails and texts. All kitten buyers must complete an application. All kittens are picked up from our home. We do not ship, however my husband has made deliveries a few times.
We’ve been asked many times why we do this. It’s an expensive, time consuming hobby. When a breeding goes well, the kittens are delivered without any problems (for the record, my husband does all the deliveries), and are healthy and gain weight and grow into adorable kittens. Then it’s great, fabulous. But, when you loose a mother (we have) or a litter (we have), it is horrific. Then we get a photo of one of our kittens in their new homes with thank you letters, and sometimes before they leave our home with their new kitten, they’ve already decided that they’ll be back for another kitten.
So this is what Alan’s younger sister (ha) has been doing for the past 15 years, or so. Before we fell in love with Maine Coons, we belonged to a rescue group called Animals Can’t Talk (ACT). We rescued many cats and kittens, brought them to a vet we worked with, they were given core vaccines and were spayed/neutered and we found wonderful homes for them.
On a side note, I’m not sure if Alan ever saw our website. For laughs take a look; www.mainevu.com.
Sincerely,
Marjorie Milner-Berger
MaineVu Maine Coons Registered as Preferred Breeders by,
The International Cat Association, The Cat Fanciers Association and The Maine Coon Breeders & Fanciers Association.
10/13/2021 @ 6:45 pm
Though there can be cash prizes for shows, showing dogs is mainly an expensive hobby. There are handlers who make livings and breeders who do OK, but generally speaking showing dogs isn’t income-producing in any significant way for most owners.
10/21/2021 @ 9:29 am
Sweet and very touching. Animal lovers are the best of us. I am a dog person now although for many years lived w multiple cats found, rescued, given. My one foray into “breed” was a redpoint siamese who was crazy as a march hare. George. I could tell stories about the inbred lunacy of George but I won’t.
Your kittys look adorable. Cats are wonderful. But i can’t live w cat hair anymore bc I have allergies.
This was a nice post. It was good to read a piece about one tiny area of living thats untouched by the horrors of covid. Life goes on.
10/21/2021 @ 9:36 am
Absolutely non anonymous and totally unmasked!
10/28/2021 @ 4:42 am
Much enjoyed your article Marjorie. Naively I’d no idea the feline business burgeons as you detail. Of late I’ve considered getting a Savannah kitten, but probably will get Amazon’s Astro Robot along with its proffered low maintenance — no cute cuddly meows but easier on the white mouse running backwards. Let the caged bird sing I say! Wink emoji implied.