By Heidi Dahms Foster
Seventies pop-icon Toni Tennille has had an assortment of beloved dogs throughout her life, but she also has always loved cats. When she moved to Prescott in 2008, she brought with her two tuxedo cats, Victor and Toria. After the two passed on, Toni had not had cats for some time, until two very large, very furry Maine Coon cats joined her household in January 2022.
“I visited my friend Kelly’s house, and she had a gorgeous orange cat. She told me he was a Maine Coon, and was only a year old,” Toni said. “She also told me he was not nearly as big as he was going to get!”
After falling in love with Kelly’s cat, the two visited a cattery near Phoenix, where the breeder had done all genetic health testing and vet clearances on the cats, and as a cat exhibitor, had won many championships.
“We drove up to this lovely house, and when we walked in there were seven large main coons lounging all around this great room,” Toni said. “They all looked at me like, ‘come on in, it’s fine!” They were all gorgeous.
The owner had a litter of three kittens, and the rest is feline history. Toni fell in love with the parents, Serena and Simba, and reserved a kitten, a male she named Louie. He was too young to bring home, so she planned a return visit.
She had so fallen in love with the cats that she asked if she could bring one of Louie’s sisters into her family as well, so Ella joined Louie in their new home.
According to the Cat Fanciers Association, the Maine Coon is “perhaps the most popular breed to have been ‘born’ in America, and the largest of all pedigreed cats. With a documented history going back to the 1850s, these shaggy, ‘super-sized’ cats are one of the best-known cat breeds, and are bred and shown all over the world.
Friendly, sweet-tempered and easy to train, sturdy and rugged, the breed is well-suited to the frosty winters of the northeast U.S. These cats have heavy, flowing coats for built-in protection from the cold and broad, well-tufted paws that appear designed to navigate snow banks.”
Toni has a more succinct description. “They are huge, and they shed!”
She has had fun with naming her pets to harken back to her musical career. Victor and Toria, originally born to a stray in her vet’s office, were a play on her time performing the stage production of Victor/Victoria in a U.S. national tour from September 1998 through June 1999.
After she moved to Prescott, she acquired and showed two Australian Shepherds, Bebop and Lula, named after the rockabilly song Be-Bop-a-Lula” first recorded in 1956 by Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps.
Maine Coon Louie is Prince Louie of Armstrong, named after Louis Armstrong. Queen Ella of Fitzgerald is just that, a queen, Toni said. She is named in tribute to singer Ella Fitzgerald, personal friend and favorite of Toni’s.
CFA describes Maine Coons as, “Sociable, loyal, and like many breeds that were formerly working cats, quite intelligent.” And, like people, they have varied personalities.
Ella, Toni said, is reserved and a bit skittish. “She’s definitely a girl, and definitely a queen. She ‘sort of’ deals with her brother, but she’s not that interested, as if he’s not worthy of her. She’s royal and she knows it. She’ll come up in the morning and sit next to me, putting her paw on my hand and purring. She’s really sweet unless you startle her!”
Louie, Toni asserts, is a “big old doofus. Anyone can come in the house, even someone he’s never seen before, and he’ll lie on his back on the floor and watch. Nothing upsets him.
“He comes and lies on my chest in the morning at 3 a.m. to wake me up, when he decides he wants something to eat. They’re as smart as they can be. They’ve never made a mistake in the house.”
Louie is also the largest of the two cats, weighing in at 32 lbs. at two and a half years old. Ella is smaller at a little over 22 lbs. The two won’t achieve full growth until age four or five.
“I hope Louie doesn’t get too much bigger,” Toni said. “He’s hard to get in the car for vet visits!”
Toni has found that grooming Louie and Ella has been different from other breeds of cats she has known.
“They have very thick double coats, an undercoat and a shorter outercoat. They tangle and create mats if you don’t keep up with them, either brushing them or keeping them clipped in a lion cut. If you get a Maine Coon, be ready to spend some money on grooming!”
Louie and Ella currently share their home with Toni’s remaining Aussie, Lula, who is now more than 14 years old. They all get along well. Despite their varied personalities, Louie and Ella are endlessly entertaining.
“They are funny. I’d forgotten how much fun they are to watch!”
