Orlando is a son from the second breeding of CFA GRC
Avicats Sophrosina Marfisa, DM and CFA GRC, GRP Stormwatch's Tatsumaki. He is a cameo tabby--a color also known as "red-silver." He is a gorgeous cat- more beautiful than he appears in these photos (his color makes him very hard to photograph.) Orlando is an unusual color for our breed and is our first cameo. He has big ears and a very strong and solid body, tall and long. He also has a good, smooth profile and strong chin. One of his most oustanding features is his personality- he is outgoing and affectionate, and he loves to keep us company and supervise our activities. Orlando took to our Bernese Mountain Dog immediately and has become his devoted friend.
We were very excited when Orlando became a CFA Regional Award Winner for the 2000-2001 show season. This means he was one of the top cats of all the cats (of any breed) shown in championship for the whole year in the North Atlantic Region. Orlando is also a National Color winner- he was the best cameo tabby Maine Coon in all of CFA for the year, and second best of the "Other Tabby" color class (which includes all tabby colors without white except brown). He was also Best of Color Class in the NAR for the year. We are very proud of him to have won these prestigious awards- not only is he a Maine Coon but he is also an unusual color. This was our first try at a Regional Win and we are thrilled, especially because, with the advent of puberty (and his first breedings), Orlando took a break to regain some of the coat he lost and as a result missed almost half the show season. But most of all, we are very happy that Orlando is such a loving and sweet boy- he loved cat shows and purred loudly the whole time- with us and with the judges- always looking for the toys or begging for them on the judging table.
With his Regional Win, Orlando surpassed all of our expectations in competition- starting with his having granded at the extremely young age of eight months, just one week after his brother CFA GRC Avicats Ludovico Ariosto. Orlando gained the title after he defeated over 200 other champions at one show. Orlando's Grand Championship was also the final one needed to give his mother Sophie the "Distinguished Merit" title in CFA, an honor awarded to top producers in the Maine Coon breed. Among his successes was a show in Canada, where not only was he best Maine Coon in every ring, but he was highest scoring cat of all breeds in the show. We are very proud of Orlando as well as his brother and their sister CFA GRC Avicats Phaethusa Stria, especially since they were directly competing against each other that year.
Orlando is a sweet and lovable boy. His heart was screened by ultrasound at over two years old and looked great, as did his hips which were x-rayed by the PennHip method. But we don't have enough girls to keep him happy as a "stud boy," so we made the difficult decision to neuter him. We did first breed our girl CH Angtini Amaretto of Avicats to him, and the kittens were gorgeous. We kept a dark red tabby girl, CFA CH Avicats Alessandra Benucci. Also from this litter are CFA CH Avicats Beatrice Portinari, a cameo like her dad, and CFA PR Avicats Marco Polo, a silver tabby boy shown as a neuter by his owners. We brought Orlando back out to a few shows as a neuter in "Premiership" competition (the equivalent of championship competition but with spayed and neutered pedigreed cats). We were very happy to find that Orlando still loved showing (he purrs and plays for the judges, too), and he also did extremely well as a Premier, quickly winning the title of CFA Grand Premier. Unfortunately, Orlando now suffers from carsickness--worse with each trip--so, needless to say, we had to forget our plans to try for another big win in Premiership! Orlando now enjoys hanging around the house and keeping an eye on us, and he only has to ride in the car for his annual checkups.
