Who we are

LIONHEART was founded in 1997 with its first Maine Coon Real Coon's Ector, a Silver tabby Mackerel  with White male that we nicknamed "Gattone," which means, big cat. Gattone has a well proportioned, very tall and slim body; he plays a distinctive role in our "family," which is how we refer to the cattery. Next came Fada del Mediolanum, a Tortoiseshell female that brought new life into our world thanks to her precious and rare colours. Although she belongs to one of the larger breeds of the world, Fada is not a giant; nevertheless, she gave birth to some beautiful kittens, all of them with very interesting colour varieties as well.

In 2000, we witnessed the birth of a real live-wire named Lionheart's Iena Plissken (a name bearing worrisome signs...), a Red Silver tabby Mackerel with White male who is the offspring of Ector and Fada. Iena has a noticeably strong personality and looks massive in the winter because of his very thick coat (he can reach up to 10 kg. during winter). Rowanridge Black Magic came next. She's a Black Solid who has brought much luck into our home due to her very sweet and chatty nature. Black comes from British Columbia, i.e. the far western part of Canada. Her body is robust with a typical Maine Coon head with very lynx-like in looks.

 The last one born in our house is Lionheart's Wild Spirit, who befriended Squamy, another female Silver Torbie tabby Classic with White. Squamy is extremely affectionate, follows our every footstep and constantly wants to be held and caressed. Squamy is of good stock, her greatest attributes being the size and shape of her ears, which are very lynx-like.

Roberto, Samantha and Elisa are the people behind LIONHEART. We are a quiet Italian family, who became interested in breeding Maine Coons years ago. Driven by our love and passion for cats, we decided to put ourselves to the test and see if we could produce high quality Maine Coons here in Italy. We started attending cat shows, seeking to develop our own taste and ideas about what we wanted and realized that we preferred the American standards rather than the European ones (although this choice has not always been the easiest one).

We live in northern Italy, in a small, quiet village surrounded by the peaceful countryside of Novara. We have been raising Maine Coons with the utmost care and love, always striving for the highest quality both in terms of beauty and temperament. The health of our cats is very important to us, thus we feed them only the highest quality products. All our adult cats undergo Fel-V, Fiv, HMC and PKD tests. Our kittens do not leave our house until they are 3 months old, by which time they have been weened and given all necessary vaccinations. Each kitten has its own Health Book, its own Pedigree and its own ID microchip.

As you can ascertain during the visit of our site we are a small cattery that from 10 years knows and adores this fantastic breed, idea has always been that to slowly grow and in correct way this doesn't mean that we are perfect, but it means that from the experience and also from the errors we have learned and we are improved. Our cats live in symbiosis with us and it are extraordinary to see indeed how much a Maine Coon is affectionate and faithful, some of them live outside while others live in the house.

© LIONHEART'S Maine Coon Graphics 2008