On the 18th July,2007, at the Three Counties Show in Southampton, the first ever high whited Maine Coon achieved Championship status under GCCF.

CHAMPION COONFLAKES DUCATI

Ch. Coonflakes Ducati is a beautiful high white brown tabby who absolutely exemplifies the new standard of points perfectly. She has brought to fruition something that has taken some 17 years or so of hard work for the breed in the UK to get to this point.

When I began breeding in 1989, I began to notice in the magazine that some of us got from the USA (The Scratch Sheet, I think it was called) that there were lots of beautiful maine coons, with very much more white than we in the UK were used to seeing in our cats, and I was very taken with them. As my own breeding progressed, I began to produce occasional kittens with more than the "white bib and paws" and really noticed how gorgeous they were - and how potential new owners always made a beeline for them! Upon talking to other breeders/exhibitors, I realised that these beautiful kittens always had to go as pet quality - as under our standard of points none of them could be shown. After a brief flirtation with a van pattern 'coon, just to clarify some rather confusing wording of the standard, myself and several other breeders asked the then only affiliated GCCF club, the Maine Coon Cat Club, how to go about changing the standard, so that cats with higher white could be shown. Well - you would have thought we were asking to exhibit cats with two heads! The reactions at that time were quite extreme, some of the existing breeders felt that there was no good mc unless it was a brown tabby, and were only just grudgingly accepting of the reds!

They were unhappy with the newer colours coming along anyway, and more white was just a step waaaaay too far! So the vote was against us, but surprisingly, not by the huge majority we had thought it might be - we discovered that there were lots of breeders who felt like us, that these were attractive cats who should be given their chance to shine on the show bench. There was hope!!

When some of us got together to start the Maine Coon Breed Society, one of the issues that myself and others wanted to raise again was the one of High White - by the time we became affiliated, the look of the breed on exhibition had almost totally changed. Brown and red tabby will always remain hugely popular, of course - but now we were seeing lots of silvers, shadeds, and solids out there - and with this wave of new colour acceptability, was a feeling amongst more and more exhibitors that we really should look again at raising the level of acceptable white. Little by little, newer breeders, and more of the existing ones, were open to considering a change. The wording of the standard was crucial, of course - and I spent many an hour at the computer, trying to come up with something that would be acceptable to most people. It was generally agreed that we had all worked very hard to improve our colour and markings, and that this should be protected at all costs, but we really needed to get rid of the "one third" rule - which was open to huge differences of opinion, and caused many arguments between exhibitors and judges.

Eventually, I placed the proposed wording before the MCBS AGM, using avisual presentation to help me to explain how the wording would work against poorly marked cats, and would protect all our hard work on pattern. The vote, although close, was for the new standard! We had taken the first step. Next, it had to go before the MCCC and once again, I presented my arguments, to a packed AGM. The discussion was long, and intense, and included some refinement of the wording, for which I was totally in favour. I awaited the outcome of the vote with some trepidation, which turned out to be totally unnecessary, as the vote for my proposal was overwhelming!

So now, I had a majority in favour of raising the level of white at both clubs that make up the BAC - but with one tiny snag - because the wording had changed and wasnt that voted for by the MCBS I had to ask to hold an EGM in order to vote upon this issue. Again, I was stunned at the huge turnout and the overwhelming vote in favour. This left the way clear to place the proposal before the BAC. As both clubs now had a mandate to vote for the motion, it was passed through the BAC and forwarded to GCCF Executive, who agreed to place it upon the Agenda of the next Council meeting.
Sue Deane, as representative for our club was asked a few questions at the Council meeting, and was relieved when the vote was carried, the change to the Standard of Points being implemented at the beginning of the show year, June 1st, 2007.

So - that brings me back to the beginning of this article, as, one month later, in three straight shows, Ducati has led the way in becoming our first ever high white champion.

I must admit to stifling a little giggle at the irony of it being a Coonflakes cat - you wouldnt believe just how hard I had to work to convince Laura how attractive high white cats could be, as she was one of the most confirmed anti-high white breeders I knew!!

Lynnette Cannell. MCBS Secretary