SpiritHill Studs
GH SpiritHill Red Alert
Red Alert is the son of CH SpiritHill Red Cloud and CH SpiritHill Waltzing Matilda. He is the first offspring of a SpiritHill x SpiritHill breeding.
Red Alert is a red classic tabby with white. His red is quite beautiful and fits his name perfectly. Red Alert is a sweet boy that gives kisses and head-butts to anyone who asks, and sometimes to those who don't! He is laid back and a gentleman through and through.
Red Alert is the first cat I have shown that actually loves to show and travels well. His CFA show career provided SpiritHill with some wonderful firsts. We had fun going to shows and he loved all attention given to him.
Red Alert attained the title of Grand Champion and was the first SpiritHill cat to do so. He also received an award for Best Red Tabby and White Maine Coon in CFA for the show season 2008-2009, on both the National and Regional levels.
Red Alert is on the schedule to end his breeding career soon.
CH RPCatHouse Gentle Ben of SpiritHill
I got Ben from Stella Gaynor of RPCatHouse in Maryland. She entrusted me with her kitten and Ben will add new lines for me to work with. I have never added a stud that I did not breed to my cattery, but it was time.
Ben is a brown mackerel tabby with low white. His color alone helps add variety to kitten colors since he has no red and low white. If you have followed SpiritHill in the past you know that many red and high white kittens have graced our home. Genetically Ben carries the solid (agouti) gene. He also carries one dilute gene (dd) which causes a clumping of pigment along a cat's hair shaft. To the human eye this causes the cat's coat to appear diluted or a lighter shade than normal. Black/brown cats appear blue, red cats appear cream. I think the diluted cats are beautiful. Genetically, Ben can add to the color repertoire for SpiritHill kittens.
Ben is a gentle soul just that lives up to his name. He he not a push over, but enjoys purring and rubbing on his human. Ben did not like the show scene, so unfortunately, I let him stay home after he reached the title of Champion in CFA.
CH SpiritHill Colorado Hunter
Hunter is a SpiritHill bred boy out of SpiritHill RileyRoos and ABCcats Poetry in Motion. Hunter is a brown classic tabby without white. He is a solid male with strong features. Hunter is a sweet boy and hopefully will give that trait to his kittens. Since he has no white coloring to him, he will help SpiritHill produce the more traditional Maine Coon color of brown tabby.
Due to no fault of his, Hunter was not shown much. My life just did not allow the travel that was necessary for Hunter to get high titles. In my mind, he deserves them!
SpiritHill Blue Canoe
SpiritHill Blue Canoe is a solid blue Maine Coon. Blue is the term for the color of grey, and is genetically a dilute form of black. Blue Canoe's parents are Sebago Mist Colorado Skies, a solid blue with white female and Dirigo Privateer Phips, a black smoke male. Blue Canoe's pedigree is unique in the sense that it is a comes from old Maine lines, particularly Sebago Mist and Dirigo, along with many other catteries that participated in developing the breed we call Maine Coons. In the 1970's HeidiHo Sonkey Bill was bred to Tanstaafl Polly Adeline, two early Maine Coons. This pairing produced kittens that were large, of show quality, and looked very much alike. Because these cats looked so much alike, they were named the Clones. These cats in of themselves were nice cats and not inbred, but were often line-bred and used over and over again by many breeders. By the 1990's it has been estimated that the pedigree of the average show line Maine Coon has between 35 - 50% of these same cats in their ancestry, and that percentage is not going down even today. While an individual cat with 40% clones may have an appropriate inbreeding coefficient (not inbred), their genetic diversity is less than perfect. This is why I went back to what is termed "foundation" lines and feel that Blue Canoe's pedigree is a good one for a breeding program. His clone percentage is 6.46%, but he still comes from the original Maine Coon gene pool. He will not be a winning show cat, but when bred to show lines, will hopefully provide some needed genetic variability and uniqueness to his offsprings' pedigree. Plus, he is a sweet, beautiful boy who embodies many of the physical traits along with the wonderful temperament that the Maine Coon is known for. I can't wait for him to sire a litter.
SpiritHill Queens
Coonity Prana of SpiritHill
I received Prana from Ulli Illia of Coonity Maine Coons. Prana was born in Austria but is from solid American lines. It is always great to add a cat to your household that has a well-thought out pedigree, with low inbreeding numbers. She is a blue smoke, without white, cat. That means she is a solid dilute cat with silver. I love dilute and was happy to add silver to the color palate of SpiritHill kittens. Since she is without white, it will be a good complement to the higher white cats that SpiritHill can produce. Prana has a wonderful personality.
Prana came to me without being shown. I may decide to bring her to show and see if she enjoys it.
SpiritHill Summer Shandy
Summer is a dilute patched tabby with white, also called a blue-cream torbie. Her colors are blue and cream instead of black and red. She has a silky coat that is wonderful to pet. Summer has a sweet but independent personality, and takes after her mother, SpiritHill Shandy. Summer's sire is SpiritHill Canyon Quake, who only had one litter of kittens. I must admit that I have a special place in my heart for Summer because she is the only grandkitten of my heart cat SpiritHill Mojito Diablo, aka Teddy. Plus, Canyon is a special cat to me, too. She is a blend of all SpiritHill lines.
Summer was never shown. She is of the old Maine Coon type and does not look like what is winning in the show hall right now. So, she gets to stay home. She acts like she has all the titles in the world and definitely does not need the show experience to feel confident in herself.