What's New at Coonyham?

Coonyham Mirabella - blue classic tabby and white female kitten - at
8 weeks
of age. Is this a cute kitten or what? Mirabella is owned
by Mami
Matsumoto in Japan. Copyright Ron Kimball, all rights reserved.
- Fog City Cat Club is having a show
this year on November 24-25, 2007 at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in
Pleasanton, CA. Details may be found at www.fogcitycatclub.com
- We have kittens! Yea!
Details on our Pet
Kitten page....
- We survived our show with 109 degree
heat; thanks for visiting!
- Fog City Cat Club - our show is July 22-23, 2006
at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, CA. Come on out
and visit the show!
- We have updated our adult page with
available cats. Take a peek.
- It's time to neuter Comanche and Rough
Rider and place these boys as well as Mandalay. Please call Joe
or Sharon for more info on the boys and the timing of this important
vet visit. ;-)
- Joe wants to lighten his load so we
have made the decision to drastically cut back on both the number of
cats we have but also curtail breeding to 1 litter per year. It's
hard to part with treasured friends. We will be rehoming
Catalina, Valkyrie and Sarah. We want to be extra careful about
rehoming these special cats. If you feel you have what it takes
to adore one of these precious friends, then please call us to discuss
them.
- We had a fabulous time in
Australia. Photos will up soon, to show the tropical far North
Queensland with scuba diving and snorkling, rainforest treks, Kuranda,
Fraser Island, Brisbane, judging cat shows, exploring gorgeous Sydney
and the impressive Blue Mountains. Australia is gorgeous but
Australians are the true treasure. Erin, Penny, Anne and Cath -
thank you all for welcoming us into your homes and showing us such a
bonzer time.
- April 27, 2005 - we had to say goodbye
to a special cat, rather unexpectedly. Navarro had lost a little
weight but you could only tell when you ran your hand down his
back. He was eating well and looked great. However, we
could feel a lump on one side that was not quite right.... The
vet did xrays and ultrasounds and checked his bloodwork and he was
scheduled for emergency exploratory surgery which discovered acute gall
bladder disease. His bile ducts were enormous and when three
surgeons deemed him to be "inoperable", we had to make the hard
decision to not wake him up in order that we might have another month
of time with him. We had to put his quality of life over our need
to hold onto Navarro. It was hard to do. We know "gall
bladder disease" does not sound especially serious to those without
medical backgrounds but his was. We miss him very much. He
was a very special, loving boy whose progeny went on to bless many
peoples' lives. He was expecially loving and in our laps that
last week, as if he knew he needed to say goodbye to us. Here is
a tribute to Navarro,
our loving boy.
- Not much to report other than April
and May will be kitten season for us. We know it's hard to wait
but those little squirmy kittens have to grow up - with their moms and
siblings and learn how to wrap their humans around their furry big
paws. Love - from our home to yours.... coming in July. :-)
- October 2004 - this was a very
difficult month. We had to say goodbye to Santana who had kidney
disease and she was failing in spite of our best efforts. Then -
suddenly, we lost Caliente who developed a duodenal ulcer from being on
prednisone for a minor ailment. Our hearts are broken.
Please - if there is anything positive to come from our loss, it might
only be getting the word out about the possible dangers of steroids in
some cats. Do NOT put your Maine Coon on prednisone (steroid)
unless the disease being treated seriously impacts your cat's quality
of life. Investigate alternatives first and make
steroids your last option. :-(
- September 9, 2004 - Update on
Tuscaloosa Comanche
of Tasahara - Sharon's new boy from Francesca Gagern in Austria, did
very well at his last kitten show in Edmonton (The TICA Annual) with
three finals (with 17 Maine Coon kittens and over 100 AB kittens - not
too shabby). He was a delight to show - albeit heavy to
carry around and his coat was pretty amazing too. His first adult
show will be in October. You can see his kitten photos in this directory.
- Some changes to our cat roster - we
have spayed Hippie
Chick who is available as a pet now.
- Sharon has been busy showing her new
girl - FogCity Hippie Chick of Tasahara - new cat - new cattery
name. Tina Dodge did a great job raising "Chicklet" - she is
curious, busy, sweet, playful and into EVERYTHING. :-) What
a doll.
- November 20, 2003 - Sad news: We
had to put Cheyenne to sleep. Her mammary cancer returned nine
months after surgery was first done to remove the tumors. Cancer
was detected in all of her lymph glands and she was not expected to
live past six months. Cheyenne has spent the past nine months
living quietly in Sharon and Joe's bedroom, getting lots of attention,
hugs and love. It was time to sadly say goodbye to our special
girl with such an incredible
history with us.
- September 7, 2003: We wanted to
share some good news. :-) We took a number of our retired
and breeding Maine Coons to Dr. Lori Siemens, a veterinary cardiologist
in Sacramento this Friday for a cardiac ultrasound screening session
with color-flow doppler. Dr. Siemens has been used by a number of
Maine Coon breeders or owners in Northern California. In the
past, we've had these or other of our Maine Coons tested by Dr.
Kittleson and/or Dr. Pion. We are very fortunate to have
access to such excellent and renouned veterinary cardiologists in
Northern California.
All 11 cats passed with healthy hearts and no signs indicative of HCM
which is
wonderful news. Of note is that the oldest cat tested in this
group was
our 10 year old retired stud male, Coonyham Navarro. Dr. Siemens
said he
had a normal, healthy heart and absolutely no signs of HCM.
:-)
That's our boy!
The complete list of cats tested and
passing their
cardiac ultrasounds on 9/5/03 included:
Coonyham
Navarro (10 years)
Coonyham Lone Star (6.9 years)
Coonyham Sonoma (6 years)
Coonyham Rough Rider (5 years)
Pinecoon Caliente of Coonyham (5.3 years old)
Nascat Fire It Up & Burn Out (Tori - 3.4 years)
Coonyham Nola (3 years)
Coonyham Oreo (2 years)
Velvetjewels Valkyrie of Coonyham (1.10 years)
Coonyham Mandalay (1.9 years)
Coonyham Dolce Vita (1.4 years)
Special thanks to Betsy & Dave Tinney for Caliente, Donna Hinton
for Tori
and Roxann and Van Rokicki for Valkyrie - these beautiful girls are a
joy to
us.
Thank you all for sharing in our good news. Copies of the cardiac
reports
will be forwarded to FOMCC.
- August 2003 - well, it's not that we
have not had any news, we've just been too busy to report it. We
had lovely kittens from Nola, Valkyrie and Caliente. Sharon has
branched out into salt scrubs, lip balm and hand lotions in addition to
her great soap! Check them out. :-)
- September 12, 2002 -- Sharon has been
hard at work learning a new skill - making cold process soaps using
natural ingredients and essential oils. At first, it was
interesting (ok, Mom has a new hobby...) but we have to say, Sharon is
REALLY good at this! Even the soap shops are impressed by how
quickly Sharon has picked up the techniques and combinations.
She's very creative. Her experimentations are quite clever (some
are too clever...ask her about the Scharffenberger chocolate soap for a
good laugh). Her soaps are marketed under the name Tassajara
Soaps and she is selling them at local cat shows, street fairs and
craft shows. She is also been contracted to provide soaps as
judges gifts for several West Coast clubs. Sharon will have her
own web site up soon (www.tassajarasoaps.com)
but in the meantime, be sure to ask her about her soaps when you see
her. Our favorites? Way too many to mention but Spicy Fig,
Plum, Energy, Pikaki and the new "Rise and Shine" and "Pink Lemonade"
soaps are big hits.
- September 1, 2002 - Wow, what a great
Annual awards show in Washington, DC. Mandalay got five finals
including three best of breed awards and ended up the highest scoring
MC adult in show. You go girl! Laura won the celebrity
judging contest and
gave her talk on grooming. We went sightseeing, had fun times
with friends and just kept on going despite lack of sleep.
:) We need a vacation to recover from our vacation.
:-) P.S. Congratulations to Dave and
D'Nette Musser whose beautiful male kitten - Oldestage Doc Holliday of
Mainette - was Best of the Best Kitten in show - out of 140
kittens! Way to go!
- July 21, 2002 - We survived putting on
the TICA Mid-Pacific Regional Awards show and banquet. We all
feel like we were hit with mack trucks but the show went well, garnered
praise and everyone seemed to have a great time. :-)
Elaine Weitz took home Dralion, a cute black smoke boy from Tori and
Tommy's litter. Mandy picked up 4 finals, Oreo picked up 2 and
Coonyham Valentino of Versus picked up 3 finals at his first
show. Woo Hoo.
- June 16 - Both Mandalay and Valkyrie
ended their kitten careers with a nice show in Santa Rosa. Mandy
got 7 finals and Valkyrie got 2. Both girls handled well and
enjoy themselves. They are best pals.
- May 4 - We visited Baxter, Rascal and
Maggie - the CoonyKids who live with Arthur Stern. Arthur
welcomed another CoonyBoy into the horde - a black smoke.
Check out Arthur's wonderful art and stained glass. A neighboring
artist (Gwen Connolly)
does the most wonderful sculpture. Someday, Laura sighs....
she'll have one of
Gwen's pieces.
- April 6 - Laura is back from
Japan. Everything was magical - the Tokyo Cat Club put on a
fantastic show with outstanding cats, wonderful weather most of the
days, the cherry trees were in bloom - everything was PINK!
Spending time with Sumiyo and Franco Cremente in Kurashiki and Okayama,
seeing the Himeji castle and the Kurakoen gardens was very special and
shared with wonderful people. It was fabulous to finally meet
Michi's mother and see Sunny again as well as to stay with Michi and
visit her friends (and to go to Kamakura with them).
- Monica - our wonderful Japanese
Bobtail (well, she lives with Faye Heath and rules a house filled with
Maine Coons) is now famous! Check her out on one these gorgeous prints
and shirts by the very talented Claudia Sanchez. Monica is at the
bottom of the page.
- February 24, 2002 - We have a new
kitten! Velvetjewels
Valkyrie of Coonyham is a beautiful brown classic tabby from Roxann
& Van Rokicki. She is a lovely, sweet girl. her
parents are SGC, RW Coonyham Gold Rush of Velvetjewels and Sarafina
Tamaya of Velvetjewels. Photos and more info to follow.
Thank you Roxann and Van - she's a treasure!
- February 15, 2002 - Laura was advanced
to Provisional Allbreed Judge.
- November 11, 2001 - Laura returned
from the cat show in Mannheim. She enjoyed sightseeing in Vienna
with Francesca Gagern and Gerhard Wrodnick who went out of their way to
ensure Laura had the best possible time imaginable -- getting home just
in time to learn that Nola has delivered her six babies. It's
Coltrane's first sired litter and they look super.
- June 20, 2001 - we have welcomed a new
kitten! Sarajen
Nighthawk of Coonyham comes from Teri and Ken Matzkin.
Laura flew out and picked up "Tommy" and we have been enjoying him ever
since. He is an unusual look for us as he is a black and white
tuxedo but he has a great pedigree, excellent type and is a very loving
and doofusy boy. Thank you Teri and Ken - your love and care
shows in this boy.
- June 2, 2001 - Sharon and Laura
visited Vickie Shields and Adriana Kajon in Albuquerque, NM to attend
the TICA judges school but had the opportunity to some fun sightseeing
with Vickie and Adriana--the Petroglyphs and Sky City - the Acoma
Pueblo. What a fun time we had - such beautiful scenery
with a fascintating history and culture. Now, if we could just
live there... Thanks Vickie and Adriana for such a great time!
- May 20, 2001 - Laura had a great time
in Germany - judging the CATS-4-US e.v. cat show in Mannheim and seeing
so many wonderful cats. She also had a great time exploring
Heidelberg and Mannheim and enjoying great German and Greek food.
Now if she could just get over her tendencies to climb
on medieval castle walls.....
- April 30, 2001 - Laura had a fabulous
time in Austria, hand-delivering Natalie to Francesca
Gagern and Bonnie
to Irmi and Peter Bittner of Macavity
Maine Coons. In addition, Laura judged for the Blue Danube Cat
Club in Altheim and had a great time. The weather was spectacular
in Vienna and thanks to Fran and Gerhard, Laura had a wonderful
time. :-)
- April 2, 2001 - Cassis and Tori
are now CFA champions. Sharon showed them with the wonderful
assistance of Janet and Alli Brown (proud owners of Coonyham Jack
Daniels). The girls showed well and Tori even made a second best
of breed placing (as an open, over a grand and two lovely
champions). Sharon Tolby showed her boy, Coonyham Dylan who is
now a CFA Premier in addition to working on his TICA titles (he is
currently a TICA DGCA). Her other boy, Coonyham Makena enjoyed
hanging out and enjoying himself. Sharon T. reports that Makena
is a "guy magnet". She holds him and guys come from far and wide
to admire him. Hmmmm. Maybe Laura should borrow him for a
while.... ;-)
- March 24, 2001 - we had to say goodbye
to a very special cat. QGC St. Clouds Silver Shadow of Coonyham -
our first Maine Coon, the one who started all of this, finally lost his
battle with kidney disease. He purred through the end; leaving us
as gently as he lived with us - full of grace and quiet
affection. Goodbye
dear friend - we miss you very much. :-(
- February 4, 2001 - good news!!
We took four cats to see Dr. Kittleson and all have normal and healthy
hearts. The girls are: St. Clouds Cheyenne of Coonyham
(10.5 years old), Cooncreole Mardi Gras of Coonyham (10.5 years old),
Coonyham Bandita (2.5 years old) and Coonyham Dixie Chick (1.5 years
old). Yea!
- December 24, 2000 - Santa Claus came
early this year. At the New Orleans show earlier this month, we brought
home a very special present from Donna Hinton of Nascat Maine Coons - her
gorgeous girl - Nascat
Fire It Up & Burn Out - a black smoke tortie. Tori is very
special and precious to us - we cannot thank Donna enough for her
trust, generosity and friendship. Special thanks also to Kathy Joiner
and her friend Chris for bring Tori from Houston to New Orleans. :-) We
also showed our kittens Cassis-a solid
black and Sierra,
her brown tabby sister. Both made breed wins and were fun to show.
Cassis loves showing and Sierra is starting to think it's not too bad
(heck, those judges have cool toys). :-)
- December 10, 2000 - we took a carload
of cats up to Davis for echocardiograms as part of the hypertrophic
cardiomyopathy clinic with Drs. Kittleson and Pion. We are very
happy to report great news - look for detailed updates on our females page.
All but two of our breeding cats (males and females) have been tested
in 2000. Those two will be tested once they have stopped nursing
their kittens (a retest for one, a first test for the other). In
addition to our actively breeding females - we also retested Coonyham
Cherokee, a retired queen who is now a 5.5 year old spay.
Cherokee tested completely normal and free of HCM, as she did in her
previous two ultrasounds. Cherokee produced eight beautiful
kittens during her breeding career (she obviously believed in quality,
not quantity). She is now in a great home in Vallejo and busy
training her new humans. :-)
- September 4, 2000 - Just got back from
Las Vegas - had a blast, ate far too well but did not lose any money
gambling. :-) Dylan got a final at the show (yea for the
blue cat) and had a nice photo session with Jim Brown. Coltrane
emerged from retirement very short on coat but long on love, attitude,
head bumps and show stretches. He is so much fun to show - relaxed and
goofy! Dylan's brother, the wonderful Jack Daniels looked
marvelous and Jack made second of breed in one ring (yea Jack!).
The awards banquet was so much fun - thanks to everyone for their
support and noise! Elaine's clapper toys were marvelous. It was
great to see everyone so gussied up and having fun. Baci's blue
son, Coonyham Casanova of Wistariantale (aka Bubba) is winging his way
to Italy with Sumiyo Cremente (Baci's breeder) - sniff. He could
not have a better home but we do miss him. Back to litterpans and
kitten snuggling now.
- 31 July 2000 - what a weekend!!
Where to start?
- First of all - we had a fantastic
weekend at UC Davis attendingthe 2nd International Conference on
Feline Inheirited Diseases ,
hosted by Drs. Leslie Lyons and Neils Pederson. We learned a
great deal about different types of inheirited diseases, became updated
with the latest information on previously "known diseases" and
enjoyed meeting an international group of feline medical scholars,
judges, breeders and veterinarians.
- Secondly, we participated in the HCM
screening clinicon Sunday and
had seven of our cats examined by Dr. Mark Kittleson and Dr. Paul
Pion - none had HCM, what a relief. :-)
- Thirdly - we learned that Coonyham
Chynna Doll of Coonwyck achieved her grand champion title in
TICA. This is not only exciting news for Chynna and her owners,
Dave and Becky Lovall, but it also means that her mother, SGC, RW
Cooncreole Mardi Gras of Coonyham now has five of her offspring as
confirmed TICA grand champions (or higher) which means that she is a TICA
Outstanding Dam. This is
very exciting for us. Mardi Gras has definitely earned this award
with her outstanding children who have been shown in many associations
around the world, not just TICA.
- Fourthly - Jack Daniels and
Quincy were shown at the CFA
show in Pleasanton and both boys had great shows; finalling in several
rings. It was the first time their new owners had exhibited their
boys and they all had a great time at "their" first show. Yea -
new exhibitors...!
- Fifthly - Coonyham Cisco of
Coonpulsive (Caliente and
Navarro's son, also Quincy and Fiesta's brother) was shown at the TICA
show in Pennsylvania and he also had a great show with many
finals. So - it was quite an exciting weekend as you can
see. :-)
- 16 July - Our regional awards show and
banquet was a lot of fun. Not only was the awards ceremony
enjoyable (well, ok, we were obnoxiously loud but we did want to
celebrate), but the Sunday breakfast we co-sponsored with Paul Huntley,
Trish Leary and Susie/Lou Woolsley went without a hitch and based on
the quick disappearance of the food (bagels, assorted cream cheeses,
marionberry jam, lox, breakfast cakes, strawberries, assorted grapes,
dip, coffee, sparkling cider, OJ and mimosas); was very much
appreciated by all exhibitors. We all wanted to celebrate having
best cat, best kitten and best alter who happened to be all Maine
Coons! It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed hosting this "breakfast
party". The show was good too; Dixie Chick is now a champion with two
finals. Jack Daniels and Dylan both had another fun show
with many breed placements and several finals including a Best AB
Kitten final for Jack. :-)
- 5 July - Navarro has been
retired. We are all eager for him to rejoin us in bed and enjoy
life as a lap kitty. Uncle Navarro loves to groom kittens and his
new role will be as one of the official greeters for the Coonyham Clan
- a role he has already taken to heart. He is sooo cool. :-)
- 17 May, 2000 - The 1999-2000 TICA
Show season is finally over and we are delighted that our two special
boys are both TICA International Winners. SGC, IW Coonyham
Rough Rider is Best of Breed MaineCoon Cat and 14th Best AB Cat.
SGC, IW Coonyham Coltrane is 2nd Bestof Breed Maine Coon Cat and 16th
Best AB Cat. Coltrane is also TICA's 5th Best Maine Coon kitten. We are thrilled beyond
belief with these two handsome boys. It was so much fun to show
them last year. We will celebrate their wins at our Regional
Awards showin July (they are Best Cat and 2nd Best Cat plus Coltrane is
5th Best kitten in the region). Later, we will celebrate their
International wins at TICA International Awards Show and Banquet in Las
Vegas on Labor Day weekend.
- 22 June 1999 -- We are pleased to
announce four new Regional Winners. Pinecoon Caliente of Coonyham is
9th Best Kitten in TICA's Mid-Pacific Region and Coonyham Rough Rider
is 11th Best Kitten, based on the TICA standings. QGCA Pinecoon
Born Flirt of Coonyham made a regional alter win and GRC Coonyham
Rawhide (aka Randy) made a regional longhair cat win.
- 5 May 1999 -- We took eight cats up to
UC Davis for new or follow-up ultrasounds for HCM and we are very happy
that all passed their exams (Navarro, Lone Star, Dakota, Sundance,
Santana, Sonoma, Tenaya, Cherokee).
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Last modified: October 30, 2007