FC Life

Column by: Lois Stern

Photography by : Andrea Finkel

I am SUSAN PAUL and I have 2 Maine Coon cats – the white one is Brody, 6 years old, and The orange one is Bennett (Benny), 4 years old. They share relatives on both sides of their pedigrees. Maine Coons are known as gentle giants. Some have an extra toe. They are very intelligent and traina- ble. Average weight is about 20-24lbs. So they are not small. Average age is about 18 years old. They have very large paws and tufts on them. They also have very thick long tails and larger jaws. Their dry food is larger than for the average cat. It is the size of a malted milk ball.

My husband, HERBERT and I were heartbroken when our dog, Jake, died last summer. We rescued Jake when he was five months old and lived to be fifteen years old.. He was big when fully grown, 75 pounds, handsome and people always referred to him as a black Lab when in fact his DNA reported he was a MUTT. He was afraid of strangers until he was ten years old. Unfortunately he developed arthritis, became hard of hearing and lost most of his eyesight, but lived a long life for a large dog. Herb felt very lonesome without him. What should I do? Jake hadn’t died that long ago and we loved him so much. Our good friend, Marilyn Greenberg, who found Jake for us through her everlasting commitment to the rescue of animals, got on the job and 24 hours later, had a candidate for us. A family moving could not take their 3 year old, 24 pound dog. “Keep her for three days and if you do not want to keep her,

we will come back and get her.” When they brought us “Shayna”, she was a tiny version of Jake: beautiful and black. Three days later, when I said to Herb, “should we keep Shayna? “He answered , “What are you talking about, I love her.” Me too! She is so energetic, playful, friendly to everyone, loveable, affectionate… do you get it? We adore her. She shares my pillow with me every night! Oh yes, I forgot a very important point, she was fully house broken! Hooray…. And she is also very smart. We got so lucky and are so happy to save another dog.

HELENE KATZ

Club News Staff

Editor Bobbe Wiener Correspondents Louise Albert, Mimi Bergel, Shirley Goldberg, Marleen Hacker, Mark H. Hurd, Myrna Leven, Norma Lippman, Lois Stern, Judy Tobin

Photographer Andrea Finkel

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