Catty Shack Maine Coons

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Catty Shack Maine Coons Raising badass Maine C***s to bless badass people. The kittens are the joy, but the people are the purpose.

We breed with intention so your companion brings lasting love, laughter, and adventure. 📍 DFW Metroplex • Hand-delivered nationwide ✈️🚗

This is what we mean when we talk about building a strong nervous system.Mister Beans attended his first hockey game ton...
10/01/2026

This is what we mean when we talk about building a strong nervous system.

Mister Beans attended his first hockey game tonight.

He had never experienced anything remotely like this before. Dozens of unfamiliar people, music, buzzers, yelling, movement everywhere, and a completely unfamiliar building with unfamiliar smells.

And I don’t expect a kitten to walk into that environment and think, Excellent. Totally normal.

He was uncertain.

That’s not the same thing as being afraid.

A confident kitten still notices when something is new. He may become more alert. He may want to stay close to his person while he takes everything in. He may need time to observe before deciding something is safe.

What matters is what happens after the uncertainty.

Can he observe without escalating into panic?
Can he take information in?
Can he recover from a startling sound?
Can he remain curious?
Can he look to his person for security and then go back to investigating the world?

That is the foundation we’re trying to build.

The goal of socialization isn’t to somehow expose a kitten to every possible thing he might encounter during his lifetime. That’s impossible.

The goal is to give him enough safe, varied experiences while his brain is developing that new doesn’t automatically mean dangerous.

Because if you want a cat who is truly part of your life…traveling with you, going places with you and experiencing the world alongside you…you don’t need a kitten who has already experienced your exact life.

You need one who has learned how to experience something new, taking established confidence and then teaching them what to do with it.

Xo, Alicia + Darren

Why Catty Shack probably isn’t the breeder for you.And I mean that sincerely.If what you picture when you hear professio...
09/30/2026

Why Catty Shack probably isn’t the breeder for you.

And I mean that sincerely.

If what you picture when you hear professional Maine C**n breeder is a beautiful dedicated cattery building, separate nursery rooms, immaculate kennel spaces, employees in scrubs and a very polished facility…you’re not going to find that here.

We aren’t really a “cattery” in the traditional sense.

Our kittens are born in my bedroom/home office because I work from home and, quite frankly, it makes absolutely no sense to put babies who need constant observation somewhere away from the person responsible for them.

My 4 tween and teenage children are home educated. They are here all day too.

So our kittens grow up in the middle of us.

They sleep in laps while someone does schoolwork. They climb on backs, they get tucked into shirts, someone picks them up walking through the room.

They hear conversations, doors, vacuum cleaners, phones, laughter, arguments over whose turn it is to do something and all the completely ordinary sounds of people existing in a house.

There are legitimate reasons someone might look at our program and say, “Nope. Catty Shack isn’t for me.”

You may want a breeder with a dedicated cattery completely separate from their living space.

You may prefer kittens raised in purpose-built nursery rooms where sanitation and traffic can be controlled differently.

You may want a much larger, established show program with walls full of ribbons and titles.

You may want a breeder producing a larger number of litters so you have more colors, more kittens and more availability to choose from.

You may want to choose your kitten from photographs at five weeks old instead of spending eight weeks watching an entire litter develop before temperament matching.

You may want a traditional waitlist where you submit an application, wait your turn and are eventually offered whichever kitten the breeder believes fits you.

You may want a breeder who operates more like a liscensed conventional kennel or cattery and less like a family raising a very small number of kittens in the middle of everyday life.

Those aren’t unreasonable preferences.

But this is why we stay small.

When I say we spend an enormous amount of time with our kittens, I don’t mean I schedule two hours of socialization every afternoon.

I mean they live with us and sleep with us and are never alone in a room with just their mom.

There isn’t really a point during the day when someone isn’t interacting with them, observing them or simply existing alongside them.

And I think there’s a difference between a kitten being handled frequently and a kitten becoming deeply accustomed to human life.

We’re deliberately building the second.

It isn’t particularly glamorous. It doesn’t photograph like a commercial breeding facility.

But I’m not trying to build the biggest cattery.

I’m trying to raise a very limited number of kittens extraordinarily well…and to know each of them well enough that when I tell a family, “This one is yours,” I have thousands of hours of ordinary life behind that decision.

So if you look at Catty Shack and think, this doesn’t look like what I imagined a professional breeding program would look like… you might be right.

And we genuinely might not be the breeder for you.

But if what you wanted was a kitten who has basically been somebody’s roommate since birth… well.

We are extremely qualified in that department. 💁🏻‍♀️

09/30/2026

I’m aware I have a lot of gray hair right now. I haven’t had time to get my hair done or even find a filter to hide it.

Thankfully Ember has noticed too and is addressing it directly.

When we say we temperament match our kittens, we are NOT talking about the same process most breeders are that offer tem...
09/30/2026

When we say we temperament match our kittens, we are NOT talking about the same process most breeders are that offer temperament matching.

You aren’t sitting on a waitlist hoping I eventually decide you’re the best family for one of my kittens.

And I’m not going to hand you the kitten I chose for you and give you two options: take it or keep waiting.

Our process gives you something I think matters tremendously: certainty before attachment, and choice after observation.

Because there’s something I think gets lost in traditional temperament matching…

You deserve to be known just as well as the kitten is known.

An application can tell me about your household, your lifestyle and what you think you’re looking for.

But then you’re left hoping I interpreted those answers correctly.

Hoping you explained yourself well enough and understood what you meant.

Hoping the version of you that existed in a handful of application answers is enough for me to decide which personality belongs in your family for the next 15+ years.

I don’t think that’s enough.

I spend weeks learning every nuance of my kittens. I think the humans on the other side of that match deserve more than being reduced to an application, too.

That’s why our get to know you calls and the seven-week Observation Period works both ways.

You’re getting to know my kittens.
And I’m getting to know you.

We talk. You tell me what you’re noticing. I see which personalities you naturally gravitate toward. We talk about what life in your home actually looks like. Sometimes what you thought you wanted on your application changes once there are seven real little personalities in front of you.

And that matters.

Because I don’t think the best temperament match happens when one person studies the kitten and then interprets a questionnaire about the human.

It happens when the kitten is known, the family is known, and both of us have a voice in the decision.

That’s the Catty Shack difference. 🫶🏼

Xo,
Alicia + Darren

If you don’t want a Maine C**n, don’t buy one.If you don’t like the way mine look, definitely don’t buy one.If you think...
09/30/2026

If you don’t want a Maine C**n, don’t buy one.

If you don’t like the way mine look, definitely don’t buy one.

If you think they look like long hair shelter cats, excellent news: shelters have cats that fit your vibe.

Go. Find. Less.

09/30/2026

Mister Beans + Chetter Biscuits are future studs/baby daddies…. But that doesn’t diminish the fact that they are most importantly just two guys that are best buddies and love each other. 🫶🏼

Yes, Maine C***s are expensive. We’re not sure why we need to elaborate. 💁🏻‍♀️
09/29/2026

Yes, Maine C***s are expensive. We’re not sure why we need to elaborate. 💁🏻‍♀️

09/29/2026

Mable is happy to clean her baby so a win is a win. 🙌🏻

Lucky Chance isn’t sure how he feels about it.

Mable update: Motherhood? Behind her.Retirement? Thriving.Regrets? None.
09/29/2026

Mable update:

Motherhood? Behind her.
Retirement? Thriving.
Regrets? None.

09/28/2026

Lucky Chance’s origin story is basically the immaculate conception.

His dad’s skills were so bad his mom never even acknowledged she was pregnant. 😬

Follow Catty Shack Maine C***s to watch Lucky Chance grow!

(He is not available for adoption)

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Burleson, TX

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