Sophie is the daughter of CFA GRC Ailurophile's Zulu of Avicats and CFA CH Avicats Chloe Dancer Doing Time and the littermate of CFA GRC, PR Avicats Figaro of Ailurophile. She became a CFA Grand Champion at the tender age of nine months. Sophie has the honor of being a "Distinguished Merit" (DM) cat in CFA, designating her as a top producer of show-winning offspring for the Maine Coon breed--a title she acheived at the age of three. Among her offspring, she has produced seven CFA Grand Champions, a Regional Winner, five National and Regional Color Winners, and a FIFe European Champion, DM, and National Breed Winner, so far. Sophie was also shown at one TICA show, where she did very well and made several finals, becoming a TICA Champion.
Sophie is a solid, muscular girl at over 15 pounds (at her proper, lean weight), with wonderful
bone. She is very typey, with a good profile, square muzzle and large ears. She also has nice lynx tips, which are hard to see on the web. Sophie's color is gorgeous, with plenty of deep red. She had a huge, full tail as a kitten and now her mature coat is longer overall and desirably
shaggy with a ruff. We love Sophie's personality- she is an affectionate girl who adores lap-sitting. She also has a very loud purr (like her daddy Zulu)! Sophie likes to sit up on her haunches like a dog and beg, waving her front paws held together, a trait she has passed to many of her offspring, and she also plays "fetch". Sophie has always been a very healthy girl. Her hips were rated as
normal (no HD) on x-ray by both PennHip and OFA (at over two years of age), and her heart tested HCM clear by ultrasound (at over three
years of age and again at five and a half).
Sophie produced her first litter (5 kittens) with CFA
GRC, GRP Stormwatch's Tatsumaki, a beautiful black smoke. The litter was outstanding and we repeated breeding a second time. All five kittens in Sophie's first litter won the top titles in the associations they were
shown in, with four CFA Grand Champions and a FIFe European Champion and DM. The breeding produced
three black smokes:
CFA GRC Avicats Versace of Coonoquan, a male and a 98-99 CFA National Color
Winner; FIFe EC Avicats Astrea Escapes, DM, who was Finland's best breeding
Maine Coon female in 1998; and another female, CFA GRC, GRP Avicats Nuvoletta of
Stormwatch, a 99-00 CFA Regional Color Winner. We kept the two non-black smokes from the litter
to show ourselves; CFA GRC Avicats Publius Ovidius Naso,
a silver tabby and a 98-99 CFA National Color Winner; and CFA GRC Avicats
Arethusa, a brown patched tabby and 98-99 CFA Regional Color Winner.
Sophie's second litter was sired by CFA GRC,
RW Freedomkatt Tom Cruise, DM. The litter produced CH, PR Avicats Niccolò
Machiavelli, a huge and lovely red tabby, and his sister CH Avicats Maine Ingredient
who is in Europe.
Sophie's next litter (of seven) was a repeat of her first, with Maki, and that litter gave us three more CFA Grand Champions and
a Regional Winner. We kept a silver patched tabby girl, CFA GRC Avicats Phaethusa
Stria. We also wanted a boy for ourselves--but we could not decide which of our two favorites to
keep, so we kept and showed both boys for a while; CFA GRC Avicats Ludovico
Ariosto a red tabby, and his brother CFA GRC, GRP, RW
Avicats Orlando Furioso, a cameo (red-silver) tabby. We ended up neutering and placing Ariosto and keeping Orlando, who was also CFA NAR's 21rst Best Cat in
Championship for the year 2000-2001, as well as a National and Regional Color Winner. All three
siblings have great personalities in addition to having had wonderful show careers. Two other
littermates were also shown: CFA CH Avicats Tiffany of Tuvets, a brown patched tabby, and CFA CH Avicats Tiramisu of Smokeycoons is a black smoke girl.
Sophie's last litter was a small one, consisting of three
brown tabby girls. The litter produced two more CFA Champions, Armida- a cuddly and
sweet girl, and her outgoing sister Kali. Their third sister,
Isabella, is living with in a pet home with her older half-brother, Ariosto.
Sophie is now retired from showing and breeding and is spayed. Her permanent home is with us, where she can watch over her descendants from our laps.
