I have had cats all of my life most of them were shelter or barncats. We also had one russian blue and a solid black persian. Alltogether my family has had about 20 cats during the years, most of them left us when they were really old like 17, 18, 22 years of age. We've also had a couple of litters and placed the kittens in homes where they were well taken care of. It was only the last couple of years that I started to develop an interest in purebred cats. I've allways had soft spot for nature cats. So after having done some research into a couple of cat breeds I ended up with the Maine coon and I bought my first Maine coon Nefertari.

 

After having thought a lot about becoming a maine coon breeder we decided in the summer of 2003 to apply for a cattery name. We sent in several names, but non of them were available. We finally decided to use parts of the name of our first 3 Maine coons. That is how the name Ashamta was born. The Ashamta cattery is registered in the Fife registers.

 

Our cats live indoors and only go outside in the 2 runs me and my father built in our garden and on occasion we take some of them for a walk on a leash. The girls are able to go outside whenever they want. The outside enclosure is connected to our living room by means of a catdoor in the window.

 

Our breeding males have a outdoor and indoor enclosure of their own. But when the weather is to wet or cold  they are also allowed in the house.

 

At night all cats are brought inside and the girls sleep in our livingroom, and the boys sleep either in their own indoor/outdoor enclosure or in the house seperated from the girls.

 

We also got a  catroom that can function as a sickbay if any of my baby's (god forbid) might get sick. We also use this room for any newcomers, I put them in this room for about 2 weeks to reduce the stress level for both the already present group as well as the newcomer. This way the cats are able to get used to each other slowly.