Notes are incomplete on some of these cats, and information is not guaranteed to be correct. If you have additonal information to add, or if you spot errors, please email 

Diana Verhaegen
 

(PrairieBaby) Oakland of PrairieBaby [p]
PrairieBaby Fear No Evil [p]
PrairieBaby I Love All You Made [p]
We had been keeping an eye on our neighboring farm cat colonies for a while. One night, my friend Rose phoned me and told me she had seen a litter of kittens that looked "just like Judith's cats" and I should go have a look at them. My two guys had taken both vehicles and so Rose took me to the farm. It should be mentioned that we have a certain type of longhaired cats populating the Oakland area for many years. At the farm we met a whole group of large, wonderful looking cats with nice long rectangular bodies. Most of them longhaired. Inbreeding must have taken place because most of them were dilutes with white. Most farm cats have a certain amount of inbreeding. Even though we are against inbreeding, we believe that even an inbred farm cat presents a great outcross to our existing lines because there is a long invisible pedigree behind them. Also, if a group of cats has stayed healthy over many years and litters are still large and perfectly formed - despite of the inbreeding - then this is a good sign that this is a relatively clean line with great vigor. Then some of our research has automatically been accomplished - in a natural way! We looked at the gums and teeth of some of the tamer cats and they looked great! One of the blue/ white females, 4 years old, who just had a litter of four kittens struck our attention. They were just being weaned and all seemed to be in good health. We decided on one of the blue tabby/white males and took him to our vet. We also asked permission to take mom in for CBC and Felv/Fiv testing. Please note that a Felv/Fiv test on a kitten younger than 12 weeks is not reliable. That is why we always take mom in first. We took pictures of mom and the four babies and also of some of the relatives to get a clear picture of the traits in this particular line of cats. We later called the mothercat "Canada Love of PrairieBaby". One kitten was real nice. He is a Blue Tabby/White boy. The other boy kitten looked more like a hamster (ha!) than a Maine Coon and had a strong under bite. So he couldn't be used for breeding. Father of Canada Love's litter was a big Blue tabby/white male we called "Souris Valley of PrairieBaby". Maxine, the daughter of the farmers, promised us a picture . We later went back and took pictures ourselves. We weren't able to catch him though. This is an old line and according to the farmers - good, honest, old fashioned English folks - there has never been any sicknesses in their cats. As a matter of fact, the great grandfather of our little boy just died last winter at the age of 18. He lived with the neighbors of the farmers. Boakeman had been in many fights and has been badly beaten up. All their cats were well fed and most of them had nice shiny coats. Mother Canada Love has had several healthy litters. The fact that there were 4 kittens in the litter and all were large and healthy, told us that the inbreeding COI can't be too high. The farm where the 17 year old male lives is also the home of the little Red Tabby/White girl, we later called "Oktober". She is his great grandchild. Both parents of Oktober could be seen at the farm. Her mom is "Lilly of the Valley of PrairieBaby", a Cream Tortie/High White. Oktober's dad is "Oakland of PrairieBaby", a Red Mac Tabby/High White. There was no scale for the cats handy at the farm, but my guess is that Oakland weighed about 15 or 16 pounds as an adult male. We were very impressed of this flock of cats. All looked extremely well taken care of. The litter of five where Oktober came from was running around happily. The lady knew all the "imaginary" pedigrees and could give us a pretty reliable history for all cats. [Top]

(PrairieBaby) Shame Into Praise of PrairieBaby [p]
The story behind Moudine is boring. We simply found her at our good friend's farm and asked if we can have her and she said "sure, it's one less kitten to find a home for!". Moudine's parents are not related. So, that's the story :-)). This girl brought a lot of boning and affection into our foundation program. [Top]

(PrairieBaby) Sid of PrairieBaby (formerly of Thunderpaws) [p]
Sid is an F1 (first generation) Maine origin foundation Maine Coon. What makes Sid so special is that he is one of the very few original Maine Coon cats (formerly called Maine cats or Maine shags). He was found and registred right in the State of Maine. Sid represents an excellent example of the old fashioned "traditional" Maine Coon type. He has a beautiful head and gorgeous eyes, a strong muzzle and chin. His coat is heavier than what we see nowadays. He is heavy boned and has a well balanced body and a nice long tail. Sid is very big for a foundation cat. He now weighs over 18 pounds , but agreed with me yesterday, that he wouldn't mind losing a pound or two :-) What we like so very much about Sid is that he is a real gentleman and never behaved like a stud male, other then when it comes to breeding a girl. Sid has a very sweet, gentle and outgoing character and loves to raise kittens. However, he needed to be the highest in rank among males when he was still whole. When we talk to Sid, he right away rolls over and lets us pet his belly. He loves to sit on laps and purrs constantly. Sid has captured our hearts with his charme. [Top]

PrairieBaby Drench The Barren Land (Prairiegirl) [p]
Here goes: We were shipping a kitten and spent the night in a Hotel in Winnipeg. How do these stories start? You tell me! Breeder is bored in the evening, really does not need any more outcross cats til next season, but is of course looking through the pet section in the local paper ..........Longhaired kittens for sale. Nothing better to do, lets take a trip to Selkirk, just outside of Winnipeg - just to have a look. .....Nice people, two dogs, three female cats, three kittens left, all are loved and well taken care of - but not much money seems to be available and things at their house were going overboard. Only one of the females was spayed. The other two (mother and daughter) were both whole. One was 4 years old and the other one (Prairiegirl) was 3. And.........this prairie girl was too nice to be overlooked!! Have they had kittens before? This is what the owner said: "They both had had a few litters - whenever they managed to get out when they were in heat. The tom cat used to sit in front of our door, waiting for them, peeing on our stairs. The kittens always went well because they were so nice and fluffy. Sometimes we brought them to the pet store if we didn't find owners". My question: Were the kids alright and healthy? "Oh yes, both are great moms, the babies already ate by themselves at 3 1/2 weeks of age. They had many Calicos and Tabbies with white paws, usually around 4 kittens." Question: What about the young female, the one who has babies right now? " She has had babies from the same tom cat as her mother, the next door guy, for the past couple of years. Nice friendly guy." "Can I see him?" "Sure, if he is home". over at the neighbor's house..... This particular tom didn't turn out to be exactly the most handsome cat but obviously capable to produce nice kids with his own "daughter" outsch!. "I ***think*** we won't take any of the kittens, but would you be willing to let us have the young female instead of a baby kitten?". "You mean you don't want a kitten but the mother?" "Yap. I am sure you will find homes easily for her 3 remaining kids". "Well we weren't planning on it, but we were kind of thinking of keeping one of these kittens........sure!! " :-) Prairiegirl and her mother Susie were obviously naturals when it comes to raising litters. According to the owners only her mother lost a baby once in her first litter. Of course pet people are not fully capable to see deformities in young kittens, but this "health history" still speaks for itself. And........even better (or not): None of them has ever seen a vet. So we have some vaccinating to do here :-)). They also did not care to spend the money to get either of them spayed, like many cat owners here in Manitoba. They actually seemed released when I offered to take "Prairiegirl" with me. Prairiegirl loved me from the first minute on. Since we had not planned this incident at all, we had to go buy a kennel for her in Winnipeg to transport her home - or actually - to be more specific, straight to my vet in Brandon. In her kennel she turned and turned, trilling at me, wanting attention. When I put my hand into the kennel she rubbed against me, licking my hands. At my vet she did not resist any kind of checkup or blood test. Her temperament is so loving and stable that this alone would have been a reason to include her in my program. Since she did not come from a shelter or farm, I am less concerned about health problems or parasites, but everything needs to be done by the book to be safe. [Top]

PrairieBaby Fall At Your Feet P (Plopp) [p]
Plopp is our club foot girl from our Canadian lines. "Plopp" is called a Four Wheel Drive in breeder language, which means she has six toes on her front and hind legs. Plopp's temperament is out of this world. She tops all of our other cats in her dependency on people. She jumps on our shoulders, just about crawls into us, licks our face and messes up our hair with her big paws. She never shows her claws. Plopp gets along very well with our other cats. She has an excellent immune system and has never been sick. Perfect gums and teeth. There were six healthy babies in the litter where Plopp came from. Plopp's Mom is our lovegirl Moudine. Daddy is a big Canadian club foot whom we called Masterweaver. A completely new bloodline is being created here, in order to strenghen the gene pool of the Maine Coon breed. [Top]

PrairieBaby Gonna Be Worth It All (Cameron) [p]
Cameron is a complete product of nature. Nobody bred this boy, he comes from a romance relationship of two cats in my neighborhood. Cameron's father Peppy is the most wanted tom cat in our little town. Nobody really likes him. As a matter of fact, the guys in town have been trying to shoot Peppy on several occasions. Peppy goes into peoples' rubbish and steels things out of their garage. For some strange reason, nobody has ever been able to catch him. Peppy has endured many cold winters with no home. His face shows scars from endless cat fights. My neighbor Glenda had compassion on him and has been feeding him for a while and has also given him shelter. She is the only person Peppy has warmed up to. Cameron's mother is was owned by my neighbor Rose's daughter Vandy. We will try to provide a picture soon. Cameron's mother was in love with Peppy the minute they first saw each other. The first time she had a litter from him was last year when I was on holidays. Rose had told me "Judith you have to look at these kittens!". But............Judith was too busy at the time. Well, this early spring Rose said she had seen her kitty at another rendezvous with Peppy. A couple of months later the babies were there. She had four again, just like last time. At first they looked like regular longhaired kittens. But all of the sudden Rose called me and said " Judith you gotta come over and look at these kids. They look better than some of your purebreds". So I went and could not believe my eyes. Rose was right - again!! Like so many times before. The kittens grew and grew and the more they grew the more they looked like little Maine cats. One of them was supposed to go to Rose's sister, Rose kept a girl kitten, a third one went to a lady who lives down the road. Cameron was the cuddliest of them all and so Rose's daughter Vandy wanted to keep him badly, together with his sister. When Cameron (they call him Flinn) turned 5 months old, we decided to borrow him for a season.Cameron has made some lovely kittens for us and since Vancy has now decided against taking him back, he is still whole. Cameron is presently still being used in our breeding program, but lives with some of our other foundation females on a farm here in Manitoba. To our best knowledge, Cameron's parents are not closely related. Looking at his outer appearance, we also don't think that Cameron is related to our other foundation cats - and if then probably only slightly. [Top]

(Prairiebaby) Canada Graceland of Prairiebaby [p]
Canada is a first generation foundation female with Canada origin. She has *outstanding* type and temperament. [Top]

Prairiebaby River Revival (Franky Frownsalot) [p]
Franky's dad is the same cat as Cameron's dad. Franky's mom is our Foundation female Jessey who is living with the neighbors now. When we got Franky at about 10 weeks of age, we honestly did not believe that we would be able to integrate him with our other boys. Franky hadn't been handled up till then and he didn't exactly have that *gentle giant temperament* that we like our foundation kittens to have. In the contrary!! Franky was a terror!! Extremely quick to act, unbelievably smart, extraordinary territorial, way too early maturing and rather "pro-actively aggressive". The food bowl was empty before the other cats had even spotted it. Franky swatted the boys (young or old) over the head when they did not stay back. Even grandpa Silhouette who usually don't take any nonsense from anybody was feeling unusually intimidated. Franky took his job very seriously! Everybody was a dangerous rival in his opinion. He felt he needed to defend all things around him, no matter if they needed protection or not! This went on for about 3 or 4 weeks. We didn't even create a separate homepage for Franky at that time, simply because we did not think he would be able to stay. Had this boy not been so drop-dead gorgeous and very sweet with people, he probably would not have gotten a chance to show us weather he had a lamb under his lion coat or not. After about a month Franky suddenly started to change. He was beginning to realize that nobody wanted to take anything from him and nobody was going to rule over him. He has now developed into a SUPER affectionate, sweet, social and good natured (not quite well behaved yet :)) young male. He can still be a bit bossy at times but we have enough girls to even this out. The adventure with Franky made us realize that a strong desire and ability to survive is definitely one trait that can make a foundation cat very valuable - if this trait will fade when the cat is handled and socialized. We are by no means suggesting that people should breed with domineering and unpolite cats. :-). In the contrary! In our case the bad behavior was simply a learned, natural *proactive measure* to stay alive. Had this boy been raised in my kitten nursery, he would have been a completely different kitten. Franky has smartened up and we used him for several breedings. We are seing wonderful temperament in all his kids. Franky has played a vital part in our foundation program. [Top]

Prairiebaby River Mercies (Ashanti) [p]
Ashanti is an outstanding offspring girl from our two full foundation Maine Coons Franky Frownsalot and Canada. I am more than happy with her appearance and especially her temperament which (I think) almost tops everything I have seen here in the past (it's not easy to compete for temperament at my place, let me tell you!). Ashanti has a lot to offer, considering she is full foundation and only F2. Ashanti has never been sick in her life. She is strong girl with a great immune system and perfect gums and teeth. [Top]

(Prairiebaby) Coonopry River Songs for Hope (Hazelnut) [p]
This fabulous girl is a result of a full foundation breeding between Jericho, our F3 full foundation male and Loretta, an F3 Koontucky full foundation female, owned by Coonopry. Hazelnut made herself right at home here the minute she arrived. I was not expecting anything else with the temperament of her parents. This girl actually reminds me a lot on Ashanti in her gentle but demanding affection. Hazelnut has stolen my heart with her extremely loving character and her great type, coat and coloring. What a healthy female with perfect gums and teeth. [Top]

All prairiebaby-stories copied with permission of Ms. J. Schulz from her homepage, 5/2008.
Note by Diana Verhaegen: the spelling of the several anecdotes are copied from Ms.Schulz's homepage. I choose to maintain the spelling as copied.

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Praylyne / Kumskaka owned by Phyllis Tobias

In the Beginning [Ohio] [p]
Prayze Medley [Michigan] [p]
True Blue American [p]
What Manner of Love [p]
In the Beginning is "Adam", black/white male and was from toledo ohio area, as a stray a friend took in. he was bred to Prayze Medley, blue/white and she was from the humane society in adrian michigan. They produced True Blue American, "Ami" , solid blue and What Manner of Love, "Anne", solid blue. [Top]

Direct the Path [Michigan] [p]
Direct the Path, black/white, "Pat" was a neighbors cat who we borrowed before he was neutered.he was bred to our beautiful bluetorbie girl who we thought looked silver, but she never produced a silver kitten. she came from an old couple in monroe michigan when i stopped at a free kitten sign. she was the mama and the most beautiful thing i ever saw. i had to convince this family to let me take her, but we had many litters from this girl. always a true friend to me! she got old (we never knew her age) and she started to miscarry her litters and finally never got pregnant again. so she was spayed and givent o a friend to live our her old life. called "julie". Pat and Julie produced a litter (in her old age and this was her last kid) called Word Treasures, bluecream. We kept treasure for a couple litters and spayed her. [Top]

Hymn of Praise [p]
No Greater Joy [p]
Hymn of Praise "Him", red mac and No Greater Joy, brown mac tabby/white female. we took them in with their last kitten who we named "Blazing Glory". (brown mac patched tabby/white female)the parents were then fixed and blaze had litter for us, then litters for prairiebaby in canada and finally with wackymoon coon in denmark. we have a daughter of hers in breeding now and blaze is a spay. one of the best cats we ever had! [Top]

Disciple of all Nations [Michigan] [p]
Overflowing New Wine [Michigan] [p]
Declares the Glory [Michigan] [p]
Disciple of Nations, "Nat", brown mac and Overflowing New Wine "Floey" were adopted with their daughter Declares the Glory "Clare" from our vet. they were taken by animal control and placed at the vets in addison michigan to find them new homes. we fell in love with all of them, but didnt keep nat any longer. Floey had many litters and was tested for all tests but on her second hcm screening, she was diagnosed with hcm. she is still alive, but all but a couple of her kids were spayed/neutered and petted out by others. Clare is the mom to one girl kept in breeding and clare tested negative on her screenings, but we didnt feel safe then and spayed and placed (they didnt have the genetic test to help with things back then) Clare and Floey were big and heavy cats and very gentle loving temperments. we never had a single problem with either in the attitude to cats or people. [Top]

Peacemaker [p]
Closer Walk of Praylyne [p]
Peacemaker and Prudence were not owned by me. i got a lovely torti kitten from them in toledo ohio and registered her as an f1. i later went back to see them and take photos and the people gave me permission to register the parents and make my torti kitten an F2. so i contacted ACA and did just this. the kitten is Closer Walk and called Kara. she is calico and still with us. a small size girl but with perfect type. i would have kept her as a breeder even longer than i did except she didnt get along with other girls well. Kara has made many kittens for us and now lives a peaceful spay's life.[Top]

By Phyllis Tobias, as told to Diana Verhaegen, 5/2008.
Note by Diana Verhaegen: the spelling of the cat's names are maybe different in several anecdotes or on certified pedigrees... I choose to maintain the spelling as Phyllis wrote it to me.

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Vita owned by Rasma Sauja

Katya [Ukraine]
Lacis [Russia]
Minka [Russia]* [p]
Puka [Russia]** [p]
Ansis Meiya [p]
Businka [p]
Comments by Rasma Sauja about the pictures of these cats:
* Minka, progenitor of Latvian Maine Coons. A very big cat, nice blue. Nice tail and coat. Of gentle disposition.
** Puka (and me) at the age of about 6 years.

1. I believe the Latvian MCs originated with ship's cats that came into rescue and were adopted, marvelled at and taken to shows as household pets, the judges said: "hold on a moment these have all the characteristics of Maine Coons". So a club was formed to go through the stages of recognition and breed and develop them. The person in charge of it all is Rasma Sauja, she lives in the Republic of Latvia.
Above information was provided by: Ann Mary Bishop. [Top]

2. "About ship's cats. These 4 cats were timely about 16 years ago when cats in Latvia didn't have pedigrees. Puca was my female, I got her from people who bought her "from sailor", the ship I didn't know. She lived 11 years and was healthy always. Minca and his owner are dead... The owner used to say that he had bought him from the owners of a pregnant cat from an English ship. He was born in Latvia from this pregnant female. He was blue and very nice and big. About Lacis I don't know but Katya was from a West German ship in Odessa, Ukraine."
By Rasma Sauja, as told to Susan Grindell. [Top]

3. "The cats you are interested in are our first cats. Our club is 20 years old now. Our first cats were without pedigrees. They were fenotypical. Our cat shows were the first in the then Soviet Union. Some international foreign judges (mainly from Czechoslovakia and Germany) affirmed their quality and breed. About Katja, Lacis, Minca and Puka. Everybody was of gentle disposition. After the collapse of Soviet Union (in 1991) Katja and her owners emigrated to Germany and I know nothing about her. She was then 6 years old. Lacis passed away at the age of 9 years. He died from ureter disease. Minca reached 9 years and possibly became the pray of some fox. (He lived near a big wood.) Puka was my dear cat. She reached the age of 11 years and died from cancer. "Vita" is my cattery, and Puka is the progenitress of Latvian Maine Coons. She was kind and gentle, very nice (the tail, the ears), a big cat (about 6 kg). She had 10 litters. All the kittens were healthy, some lived untill 10 - 15 years. Some are still alive. Black smoke Puka was born in 1984. Ance Meiya and her owners emigrated to America in 1992. I know nothing about her. Atti Chibar died at the age of 6 years from ureter disease. Celia Vita escaped from her owner's car at the age of 6 years. They could not find her 2 weeks. When they found her she was dead. Businka Vita with her owner emigrated to Germany in 1997. She reached 15 years of age."
By Rasma Sauja, as told to Lies Klösters, 8/2005. [Top]

Note by Lies Klösters: the spelling of the cat's names are different in several anecdotes or on certified pedigrees... I choose to maintain the spelling as Rasma wrote it to me.

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More information about the offspring of these cats can be found at the Maine Coon Database.