In September of 1977 a co-worker of my husband convinced us to enter our household pet “Molly” in a local cat show. His wife was an Abyssinian breeder. At the show was a female tortoiseshell Maine Coon kitten for sale with papers for $100.00 U.S.

 

Well, we bought her and entered her in a cat show the following month. “Suzeran’s Shady Sabrina of McInkats” only took one final, but we were “hooked”. At that show another breeder had a photo of a 6-week-old brown mackerel tabby and white male for sale on her cage. Since the breeder lived close by, we arranged to see the kitten after the weekend. What can I say! We fell in love with “Our Billy Benjamin of McInkats”.

 

“Benji” went on to become a grand champion in CFA, a Royal Merit Grand Champion in ACFA and when TICA started in 1979, he became a Supreme Grand Champion. He was also TICA’s best Maine Coon for the 1979/80 and 1980/81 show seasons. In TICA’s 2^nd year he was also 9^th Best International Cat.

 

In the following years our cattery was fortunate enough to receive 6 more top twenty International wins. SGC McInkats Alexander of Tails End (9^th Best Cat), SGC McInkats The Jazz Singer (5^th Best Cat),              

SGC McInkats Song Song Blue (3^rd Best Kitten & 8^th Best Cat), and O.S. SGC McInkats Headed for the Future (7^th Best Kitten and 7^th Best Cat).

 

I spent many years clerking and agenting other people’s cats of various breeds. I became aware of the fact that it would be fun to handle all the breeds and I entered the TICA judging program in the spring of 1983 and judged my first cat show in September of 1984 after completing the training program.

 

I have never looked back on my decision to become a judge, even though it consumes more than 50% of my time. In the past twenty- three years, I have judged 535 shows (average of 24 a year) on 5 continents. I, as well as my husband and our son before he joined the United States Navy at 18 years of age in 1990, have had wonderful opportunities to see many states, provinces and countries.

 

The best part though are the friendships made along the way and the opportunity to be able to handle many beautiful cats that I don’t have to feed and change their litter boxes.

 

In the eighties we bred Havanas for 8 years and the past 8 & 1/2 years we have been breeding Oriental Shorthairs and Siamese. We have been fortunate to have multiple wins in TICA with these breeds as well. However we have been breeding Maine Coons for almost 30 years and they will always remain the Number One Breed in my heart.

 

Thank you for the pleasure of being able to handle your cats.

 

Visit our website at www.mcinkats.com

 

 

 

Karen McInchak