We are a 2-cat house. The motto here is "2 laps, 2 cats". But since last fall, there's only been one kitty to go around. Our older girl, Diva, a sweet little Weegie, crossed the bridge.
Now we're ready to fill that empty lap. In the past, our kitties have come to us in a relatively unplanned way, and never with a pedigree, but the house has stayed happy. Now, though, we're trying to plan a bit because both have been thinking of a Maine Coon for a long time now, and are pretty much decided that we'll get one from one of the catteries in our area (North-East Texas). We're not looking for a show cat. Our main "non-negotiable", if we're going to buy a purebred, is that the kitten must have been raised "underfoot".
With that background, our current girl is now about 3 1/2. She came from a "no-kill" cat shelter. She is a very gentle girl. When I pick her up, if I try to hold on to her when she struggles, she pushes even harder but has NEVER, once, scratched. She is clearly totally relaxed and friendly with us, but is very shy of strangers and most visitors--she goes and hides in my closet from all but a few who she accepts as friends. With our other cat, she was very much the "alpha cat" after just a couple of days in the house, even though she was still a tiny kitten and Diva was full grown (but not a large cat--around 8 pounds). She even tried to boss us around until I put a collar on her and for some reason it made her accept that we were in charge. It's an interesting contrast--her alpha behavior in some cases, totally timid in others.
I've gone to this length to describe her personality because we have found a kitten that is piquing our interests. He's a georgeous white fellow, with brown and red "saddle" spots on his back, hind-end and top of his head. At 4 months, he's already 7 pounds. IOW, he's big enough already to hold his own. And being a Maine Coon, he's headed toward becoming a _very_ big boy. Mewsette--our girl, is a big girl, 14 pounds, but it sounds like this little fella will be bigger than her in fairly short order.
I think she'll get along fine until he gets big enough to overpower her. What concerns me is that, when he gets that big, his natural boyish preference for rougher play may be a bit much for this girl, especially since she's so determined to be "alpha". We love her a lot, and wouldn't want anything to make her life unhappy, so I'm wondering if we might not be smarter to keep looking until we find a nice other girl. There are several good sounding Maine Coon specialists within a day-trip of here, so there will be some choices, but man, that little boy is a cutie.
Any ideas on what is wisdom in this case will be much appreciated.
Now we're ready to fill that empty lap. In the past, our kitties have come to us in a relatively unplanned way, and never with a pedigree, but the house has stayed happy. Now, though, we're trying to plan a bit because both have been thinking of a Maine Coon for a long time now, and are pretty much decided that we'll get one from one of the catteries in our area (North-East Texas). We're not looking for a show cat. Our main "non-negotiable", if we're going to buy a purebred, is that the kitten must have been raised "underfoot".
With that background, our current girl is now about 3 1/2. She came from a "no-kill" cat shelter. She is a very gentle girl. When I pick her up, if I try to hold on to her when she struggles, she pushes even harder but has NEVER, once, scratched. She is clearly totally relaxed and friendly with us, but is very shy of strangers and most visitors--she goes and hides in my closet from all but a few who she accepts as friends. With our other cat, she was very much the "alpha cat" after just a couple of days in the house, even though she was still a tiny kitten and Diva was full grown (but not a large cat--around 8 pounds). She even tried to boss us around until I put a collar on her and for some reason it made her accept that we were in charge. It's an interesting contrast--her alpha behavior in some cases, totally timid in others.
I've gone to this length to describe her personality because we have found a kitten that is piquing our interests. He's a georgeous white fellow, with brown and red "saddle" spots on his back, hind-end and top of his head. At 4 months, he's already 7 pounds. IOW, he's big enough already to hold his own. And being a Maine Coon, he's headed toward becoming a _very_ big boy. Mewsette--our girl, is a big girl, 14 pounds, but it sounds like this little fella will be bigger than her in fairly short order.
I think she'll get along fine until he gets big enough to overpower her. What concerns me is that, when he gets that big, his natural boyish preference for rougher play may be a bit much for this girl, especially since she's so determined to be "alpha". We love her a lot, and wouldn't want anything to make her life unhappy, so I'm wondering if we might not be smarter to keep looking until we find a nice other girl. There are several good sounding Maine Coon specialists within a day-trip of here, so there will be some choices, but man, that little boy is a cutie.
Any ideas on what is wisdom in this case will be much appreciated.