We were in Poland. I was bored, lonely, jobless. Something had to be done. So we went for a picnic in the countryside with our friends. A chance conversation brought us to the topic of pets, and we mentioned our love of cats. One thing led to another and before we knew it, we were on our way to visit another friend of our friend. We were told that they had this special breed of cat and we were very lucky, they happened to have kittens just then. We were curious. I mean… how special can a cat be??? We have seen our own share of cats anyways.
So we arrived at this manor house (seriously, it was super cool!) It had a paddock for horse riding and training, a circular driveway, old trees surrounding the house. I mean, if you have seen any old Polish movies, chances are, you would have seen a house like that somewhere! But I digress.
We were ushered into a room. Before stepping in, we were told to take off our shoes, not to make too much noise and to sit quietly as the cats were resting, (I kid you not!) So we tiptoed into the room, sat on the floor timidly and waited. In the big room, I remember seeing a double bed in one corner, and a chair in front of us. But no cats! We waited.
Suddenly, there was a rustle. From under the bed emerged the biggest, hairiest, most gorgeous cat we had ever seen. She was silver with great golden eyes. She walked majestically past us, jumped on the chair and regally laid down. Dangling from the side of the chair had to be the longest, bushiest tail I had ever seen on a cat, with the magnificent ring markings. I held my breath. The cat looked at us, and started to twitch her tail. A few minutes passed. She dangled and twitched her tail – I could not take my eyes off her, when suddenly all hell broke lose.
From under the bed, out hurtled 6 balls of fur. They made a beeline for the Queen and started to unceremoniously jump, claw at the tail, one even attempted to climb it. 6 balls of identically dark coloured balls of fur with long tails. They soon started to pounce on each other and my heart melted. I looked at my husband and I guess he must have known then. I was not going to leave Poland without one of those furballs!
We were told that the breed of cat was Maine Coon and the mother was brought specially from Canada to introduce the silver coloured Maine Coons to Polish stock. We were intrigued. The price of the kitten however left me speechless. THAT much for a kitten? Is it even possible??? We were shown the pedigree. It did not make much sense to me then.. I just wanted those balls of fur! Who cares what championship their great, great grandparents had won!
We left the house then. I hardly dared to dream that we could have one of those kittens. It didn’t dawn on me that the other half would be willing to pay so much for a kitten. It turned out I was wrong. He had fallen in love with them too. And that was the start of our great relationship with Maine Coons.
After selecting our own little bundle of fur, there were a few more social visits with the kitten to see how he was growing and to introduce him to us. There were forms to be filled and contracts to be signed. There was a house visit made to make sure that we can provide a loving home for the kitten. Then at 4 months old, the kitten came home with us.
7 years later, he is still our big softy – Desperado is 1 metre long from nose to tail, but he is the most huggable, lovable and softiest softy that could be found anywhere…