Our History

Some twenty years ago, I had to have my old semi-longhair moggie put to sleep. Booby had lived to 18 years and had lived with me since I first acquired him at two days old. My flatmate had been on a visit to London and returned with this tiny scrap, wrapped in a teatowel, stuffed inside her jacket. Her friends' neighbours apparently bred pedigree cats, but this litter was a 'mistake' and they were getting rid of the babies. My friend managed to persuade them that they should give her one, because her flat-mate was "keen on animals, and would know what to do"!

Well, despite my ministrations, he survived and was the loveliest of cats. What nowadays, I would call a "high-white" cat, with large ginger blodges, he had the sweetest of natures. He moved with me, from flat to flat, and house to house, through marriage and the arrival of children. When he finally began to deteriorate, I ignored it at first, hoping he would improve. As it finally began to become clear that I was going to have to ease his way, I was devastated. But he was in pain, miserable, and could not clean himself, any more, so it had to be done.

For nearly two years afterwards, I refused to have another cat. No-one could replace my beloved Booby. I was simply too upset.

Eventually, we began to think about getting another cat. Not just any cat, but a special one. I had always thought Booby had been descended from either a Turkish Van, or a Maine Coon. He looked more like a 'coon, but loved getting in the bath! (I didn't know much about Maine Coons, or I would have known just how much they like to play in water!) In one of my cat books, there was a beautiful red and white MC, just like him - well, that was it - we had to have one!

Easier said than done! At that time there were only a handful of breeders in this country, and we had no idea how to find them! Eventually a nice persian breeder, whose number I found in Yellow Pages, alerted me to the cat press, and in there, after buying it for some months, I discovered the existence of one or two breeders, and cat shows. We went to a show near us, and met Tex Morgan, and his beautiful brown tabby, Majanco Moshatel. That convinced us that we were on the right track and after more research, we found our perfect cat - only some 300 miles away!!

Eventually, we collected Polly, a gorgeous red and white girl. After long discussions with her breeder, we were allowed to try to mate Polly with Moshatel, in the hope of getting a brown tabby (this shows how ignorant I was at this stage, as red girls always produce torties or reds!!!) Anyway, we had two lovely kittens from this mating. Maisie May, and Monsoon. "Soona" went back to her mum's breeder, and Maisie stayed with us.

She was so gorgeous, we started showing her, and to our pleasure and amazement, she began to do very well. She was a huge, gentle girl, who went on to gain numerous Merits, IC's and eventually, CC's. She became a champion, and then gained 6 Reserve Grands, and, at the Supreme, a Grand certificate. All through this time, she was producing beautiful kittens from time to time. When she reached 8 years of age, we decided that she had "done her bit" for the breed, and she was neutered and retired. Although shown as a neuter, and gaining two PC's, the breed had moved on, and Maisie simply wasn't in her prime, any longer, and had begun to dislike the travelling. Sadly, we lost Maisie in the summer of 2007, at the age of 18, and she is very much missed.

Our feline household is nowadays quite small, with three breeding girls, Daya, brown tabby with white, Flame, a tortie tabby, and Kaelin, blue silver and white and our stud cat, GR CH Noracoon Titan (red shaded and white) as well as our up and coming youngster, Titan’s son, Titus Pullo, who is a solid black and white, with startling orange eyes.

As well as breeding and showing Maine Coons, Lynnette Cannell is a breeder member of both the Maine Coon Cat Club (of which she was a committee member and later secretary) and is now a founder member and secretary of the Maine Coon Breed Society.

In addition, several breeders around the country have joined together to work with shared lines and to cut advertising costs - this is the Maine Coonsortium. See the links page for email and website addresses of members.

We are based in Northampton, England. For more information email Lynnette.
Alternatively, telephone us on (+44) (0)1604 451912.

For full descriptions and pictures of our cats click here.

Copyright Lynnette Cannell 1999-2004. Designed by Ellie.