Hi, folks and welcome on to our website. We are Myke and Julie McKay, and we currently live on the outskirts of Dundee in Angus, Scotland where we have lived since 2001 with our family of Maine Coons.
Originally we owned and bred long haired domestic cats to help keep the mice and rat population down on the smallholding that we used to live on in the beautiful Angus Glens. It was during this time that we decided that we would move into breeding pedigree cats, although at the time we weren't quite sure as to which breed we would choose. So we did the sensible thing and spent the next year researching different breeds until we eventually narrowed it down to just a couple of Semi Long Haired breeds. We also joined a couple of Cat Clubs to gain more information and help.
Then one day several years ago while visiting a cat show in Scotland, we saw and fell in love with an absolutely huge Maine Coon male who was just so soft and friendly that our minds were made up in an instant - and Maine Coons it was. We just fell in love with them in an instant, their large size, their long coats and that fantastic gentle temperament that Maine Coons are known for, "Gentle Giants" really does apply to a Maine Coon. After seeing many more Maine Coons in lots of different coat colours it set in stone for us what was to become a love affair with 'Coonies' as we affectionately like to call them. This set us off on the start of another journey and even more research into Maine Coons. We joined even more clubs and began the process of selecting reputable breeders and gaining our 'Prefix' from the GCCF. This was the hardest part, trying to find a good prefix for ourselves. Eventually after observing a Maine Coon sleeping in a funny position and laughing ourselves hysterically, we decided on the name Snoozing Coons which we shorted to Snoozicoonz as we thought it was appropriate as they all seem to snooze all day and so.......'Snoozicoonz was born'.
Over the following months we obtained our first Maine Coons and met our good friend and mentor Pamela Eglintine of Carramazza Maine Coons. Pamela has been invaluable in our breeding programme and has given us an in-valuable amount of help and knowledge especially in researching feline illnesses and diseases.
About Us
During late 2009, we decided to re-evaluate our lines and made the decision that from summer 2010 we would start to gradually replace all of our blood lines with 100% unrelated blood lines and make a return to the hardier 'Old Lines' style of Maine Coon. So far this has proved successful with old lines 'Coonies coming from our very dear friend Pam Nesbitt of Pampushka Maine Coons in Northern Ireland who again has helped us immensely over the years with her invaluable wisdom and generosity in helping us to get started in breeding. Pam also has some of the oldest lines in the UK as well. During early 2012 we hope to finally have all our lines 100% unrelated and all our 'Coonie family will be DNA Tested for HCM, FeLV and FIV to ensure ALL our cats are eventually tested totally clear of these conditions.
It is because of illnesses such as HCM that we made the decision to start attending various 'Feline Conferences' which are held at the Royal 'Dick' Veterinary Hospital in Edinburgh to help us to further our knowledge and understanding of how and what these diseases are and how they work. Further to this we also undertook and passed the Pawpeds Level 1 and Level 2 courses in Feline Studies/Breeding Studies online to further our knowledge.
We both attended the Petlog Microchip Implantation Course in Falkirk in 2009 to learn how to implant a microchip in various animals, all our kittens are now sold with a microchip as standard and we now offer this service to people who also want other animals besides cats implanted with a microchip. This service currently costs £15 (2012).
Our main aim is to try and breed healthy, fit cats with the traditional 'Gentle Giant' temperament with the physical characteristics of the original 'Old Lines' type of Maine Coon.
Best Wishes
Myke and Julie Mckay
