The meaning behind Taelcat

I just realized that if you stumble upon this blog, you have no idea what or who "Taelcat" is. Taelcat is the cattery name that I bred and showed Maine Coon Cats under. "Tael" is a word that was used as a form of weighing currency. Since Maine Coons are often judged by their weight, I thought Tael + cat would be an excellent cattery name, and a little play on words. I bred cats with a cattery partner. She housed the females and I housed the males. I did most of the showing of the cats. It worked well. We specialized in silvers, with or without white.

I liked to name my cats after dead actors. Some of my cats were Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Buster Keaton and Gilda Radner. Tonto's registered name is Mainette Jay Silverheels of Taelcat. Of course, this is the actor who played Tonto, hence his call name.

I showed and bred cats for about 20 years. I quit 6 years ago when I moved into my condo. Gilda was one of the kittens born in the very last litter of Maine Coons that we had.

I've shown many cats to Grand Champion status in ACFA, CFA and TICA. I have become friends with many of my kitten buyers. I have one famous buyer. The creators and writers of the HBO hit series "Big Love" bought a cat from us about 15 years ago.

Tonto

This is Tonto. He is a Silver Classic Tabby Maine Coon Cat. He is 6 years old. He used to be a show cat and was a Supreme Grand Champion and a Regional Winner in TICA in 2006. He has long since retired from the show circuit, as have I. But he still, to me is one of the best looking Maine Coon cats that I've ever seen. I know, I'm biased. But you have to admit... he is kind of cute!

I won a very cool Ebay Auction

I saw this auction on ebay to meet Alan Ball and visit the sets of HBO's True Blood. This was something that I would love to do. I watched the auction and had in my mind a set limit of what I was willing to pay. A fury of bids were placed in the last few hours of the auction. I waited until about 4 minutes before the auction went off and placed a bid. My heart was pounding in my chest with anticaption of winning, and the horror of actually bidding that much money to win this. No airfare or hotel room was included.

To my surprise, I won the auction. I called my sister minutes after I won the auction and invited her to go with me to L.A. A week or so after the auction I heard from Alan Ball's assistant and we exchanged email information. I forwarded to her dates that worked for us to fly to L.A. Fortunately, our dates work for Alan Ball, so look for me to blog about my visit to the sets of True Blood and meeting Alan Ball in the not too distant future!

Meeting Alan Ball is going to be fantastic. Now, if I can meet Stephen Moyer as well, I'll be the happiest fang girl in the world! We shall see!

Taelcat Gilda Radner

Taelcat Gilda Radner

On October 18, 2010 I lost Gilda to... I'm not sure what. She had many things going wrong. The most minor of them was that she was limping. She had a sore in the back of her mouth that would not heal. She was on antibiotics and prednisone and nothing was helping. She was having a terrible allergic reaction to food. And she was being fed hypoallergenic food. She eventually stopped eating and I was force feeding her. It wasn't working for either of us. And the kindest thing to do was to let her go. It was not an easy decision, but I think it was the right one. She is very much missed. She would have been 10 years old on February 19th.

Long time, no posts

So, it's been awhile. Since I've last posted, I've been to Sicily, lost a cat and won an ebay auction to meet Alan Ball.

In January, 2010 my siblings and I went on vacation together to Sicily. It was one of the best vacations I've ever been on. The picture below is Bafia, the town where my father was born and lived in as a boy.

More Jewelry

I've been crafting quite a bit this year. I have a webpage for my jewelry, too. Here are some other creations I have made.

It's been awhile

Wow. I have not blogged in quite awhile. Let me see if I can get things up-to-date.

On May 3, 2008 Juliet Burke came into my life. She is a seal tortie point shorthaired cat that was left behind by her owners when they moved out of one of the condo units in a building behind me. She is very sweet and has fit right in. Juliet was pretty healthy, other than having to clear up ear mites and getting her spayed. My vet estimated that she was between 10 months and 1 year of age. I kind of think she might be a little bit older. She doesn't play like a younger cat, although she does have her moments. Sam was totally in love with her the minute he saw her. Tonto hissed a little, but they are now romping buddies and sound like a heard of horses when they chase around the house. Gilda tolerates her and that's about all I can hope from her.