Feline fancy doubles as business

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Aug 9, 2006 by Dianne Lawson

By Dianne Lawson

SPECIAL TO THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

Alexis Mitchell enjoys cats and wants others to enjoy them, too. She has her own cats and also owns Syracoon Maine Coon Cats, a cattery in Topeka, where she breeds Maine Coon cats to sell.

"When people love my cats, I think it's awesome," Mitchell said.

Maine Coon cats are large with soft, medium-long hair and bushy tails.

"They are described as being dog-like, and can be trained to fetch or walk on a leash," Mitchell said.

Mitchell has had pets most of her life, and now she is working more than full-time taking care of cats.

"As a little girl, my mother wouldn't let our cats live inside," Mitchell said.

Now, she and her husband, Erik Mitchell, share their large home with the cats in Syracoon Maine Coon Cats cattery.

"Because my cats live with my family, they have frequent and kind attention from the day they are born," she said. "I am very proud of my cats' personality. They are friendly."

She sells the kittens when they are 12 weeks old, after being spayed or neutered and having all shots. The kittens also have had blood tests for leukemia and feline AIDS and have been screened for heart disease.

Mitchell was introduced to the Maine Coon breed in 1979, when she saw one on the cover of a magazine. She was in the Air Force at the time, and when she later found herself stationed in Caribou, Maine, she went looking for a Maine Coon Cat of her own.

Her search was successful, and that was the beginning of her love affair with the breed.

"The more I learned about and read about them, the more I couldn't get enough of them," she said.

Mitchell was established as a cat breeder in Syracuse, N.Y., in 1987. She named her cattery Syracoon after the city and the breed of cat she was raising. She and her husband moved to Topeka in 1998 when he got a job as the Shawnee County coroner. They brought her cats with them.

Mitchell has shown the breed at cat shows from California to Florida and one year put more than 100,000 miles on her vehicle going to shows, she said.

"I meet people at shows and they tell me they have three cats and I tell them, 'That's a start,' " she said.

Besides selling her cats through cat shows, she also sells them through word of mouth and through her Web site, said Mitchell, who is president of Topeka Cat Fanciers. She is show manager of Topeka Cat Fanciers' annual all-breed and household pet cat show, "Mall Cats," which will take place in Fairlawn Plaza Mall on Sept. 16 and 17.

Dianne Lawson is a freelance writer in Topeka. She can be reached at Cappie0113@aol.com.