I fell in love with this breed many years ago. I researched everything and found a breeder I could trust. I purchased my first Maine Coon, a brown classic tabby male. After falling madly in love with him and also with showing, I asked my "trustworthy" breeder to keep his eye open for the possiblity of a show quality red male. Almost a year later my new precious baby was born. The breeder called me instantly very excited. Aware that it takes weeks and weeks to really determine if a cat is show quality, I was guarded. This new kitten happened to be perfect. I brought him home and slowly introduced him to the family. I took him to a show and he did well as a kitten, but things started to change. Suddenly he was un-showable, he refused to be shown. His nasty, agressive behavior started to show at home as well. I knew I could not show him, but now it was getting hard to live with him. He actually inflicted injuries to my other cat, who he had never had a problem with. I talked to a behaviorist and followed their instructions, I read books and tried to educate my self on this behavior. I began to think about the possiblity of re-homing him just as he became very ill. He is at this moment at the vet being treated for diabetes on top of a heart murmur and behavior problems. He is only 10 months old. I knew about the murmur before I brought him home. I made that one bad decision, but he has never had a problem with it and the vet has assured me that he would live a happy long life with a murmur. The breeder was also aware of the murmur. But now, I own an un-showable very sick cat. I am desperate because I cannot bring him home and put my other cats in danger and only a saint would take in an agressive diabetic cat with a heart murmur. Friends in the cat fancy are urging me to return this kitten to the breeder and get my money back. Is that an option? I have tried to talk to this breeder since the problems started appearing and unfortunately he was not interested in helping out or taking any responsibility for how the cat was raised, etc. Please help me.....

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2000

Answers

I would strongly suggest that you send your story and request for help on to the many helpful and expert people who are on the Maine Coon discussion list called mcats@onelist.com All you need to do is to go to onelist.com and sign yourself up as a free subscriber to the mcats list. Then, after you have received confirmation that they have received your "subscription", you could copy & paste your question above to the mcats people. I am sure someone will have some helpful suggestions for you. Good luck.

-- Anonymous, February 02, 2000