Naming a kitten

"The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,"... from T S Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

Without wishing to cause Mr Eliot any offence, I found it quite easy to find a suitable name for the kitten. Within a few seconds, my friend Paul came up with "Cloud" (hint in the picture), and I added "Bella" for fear that "Cloud" might become "Cloudy", which has rather gloomy connotations. It seems in our household that all our pets eventually end up with an "ee" sound on the end of their names - Tinker became Tinky; Spud became Spuddy, etc.


So here is "Budletts Bella Cloud" - had to add "Budletts" in recognition of the breeder (this is the posh bit for pedigree certification).

Time to prepare the house for the new arrival

OK, so I've ordered the extra large litter tray, tidied and cleaned the spare room (yes, she will have her own room... to start with), won a Cat Activity Centre on Ebay which I assembled with some difficulty yesterday, what now?

My other love is gardening and plants, so I do have quite a few house plants in my home. I remember once reading an article about lily pollen being extremely dangerous for cats if ingested, so I decided to look up my house plants to find out if they too are toxic. That's when I found the ASPCA website, and their list of toxic and non-toxic plants for cats, dogs and horses. Really useful and with a search facility in case you don't know all the Latin names.

OK so all house plants now gathering dust in the garage, where's the cat carry and will it be big enough? Perfect timing, my Mum called me and asked if I wanted the cat carry back which had been in their loft. Thankfully, it is big enough (for now) as I bought it originally for 2 kittens which eventually went to live with my Mum when I went travelling well over 10 years ago.

So, here comes the commercial stuff - I've found that PetPlanet is particularly good for Van Ness products (recommended by Maine Coon breeders). TIP: don't stint on size - Maine Coons grow big and you don't want to have to buy a bigger litter tray/cat carry/cat bed etc in a couple of years.

I just couldn't resist one more visit

6 weeks seemed a long time to wait for Bella Cloud to be ready to come home with us, so I plucked up courage and drove over to Uckfield one more time to see how she was progressing. Now almost 9 weeks old, she'd moved into the lounge with all the other kittens who were waiting to go to their new homes. There were 5 of her brothers and sisters, 2 from another litter with Mum, Raja the 14 week old boy kept for breeding due to his unusual colouring and his Mum.

Entering the lounge, Guinevere immediately approached me for a stroke (and probably to check me out) and then allowed me to locate Bella Cloud from behind the sofa where she was having a great rough and tumble with one of her brothers. It took a little while, but eventually she started playing with me (my jumper, my handbag, my shoelaces, etc). My camera was of particular interest.

Breeder Terrie Lyons and her Maine Coon mad house

With help from The Maine Coon Cat Club Kitten List, I eventually found a breeder in East Sussex who still had a blue/white female kitten available. After various telephone conversations, we went the next day to visit.

3 hours later, having accidentally become embroiled in one of the Goodwood car rally days, we arrived in Uckfield at Budletts. Terrie showed us around her bungalow which was totally given over to all her 28 cats. Only one bedroom and the kitchen were free of cats, although the latter room had 3 resident collie dogs. Boy cats were keep in specially built shelters - opening one, Terrie picked up the most enormous cat and plonked him in my arms. He immediately started purring and put his paws around my neck - I'd met Bella Cloud's grandpa Prince (winner of numerous breeding awards) and he was simply huge!

Some time later, having been introduced to several other Maine Coons and Bengals (all of whom were gorgeous), we were ushered into the 'kitten room' where Mum Guinevere was nursing and keeping a watchful eye on her six kittens. They were almost 6 weeks old and most were little balls of fluff with sharp teeth and claws. Bella Cloud stood out immediately - blue/white is my favourite and with good reason. She was so pretty, if a little timid, but didn't seem to mind being picked up and cuddled. My mind was set... we just had to have her!

Our black and white moggy, Tinker

Having met my first Maine Coon about 5 years ago, I longed to get one, but it didn't seem fair on my moggy Tinker. Tinker ruled the roost and had managed to successfully train my 2 dogs into thinking he was the leader of the pack. Secretly, I think he thought he was a dog (a bad knock on the head from a car in his early years seemingly leaving him one can short of a six pack), although his favourite trick was to rugby tackle my ankles as I was coming downstairs first thing in the morning.

We all loved Tinker, and when he 'went ski-ing' (meaning was put down by the vet), we were all, dogs included, at a loss. Bless you Tinker, RIP.

Nevertheless, it took 2 more years (including a big house move) before we started the search proper for a blue/white Maine Coon kitten to replace our great black/white moggy. What an act to follow!

Welcome to the mad world of the Maine Coon cat

Being about to become the proud owner of a Maine Coon cat, I've become obsessed with these beautiful creatures, and determined to find out as much as possible about them.

There are lots of great sites out there, most run by breeders. You'll find the best of these in my links.

In the meantime, I await the arrival of my new kitten, Budletts Bella Cloud - only 5 days to go! Here she is at only 5 weeks old.