About Us | Marne River Maine Co

Who We Are

Hi, I'm Shane. I live in Kansas City with my husband, our three children, and, these days, quite a few Maine Coons.

Marne River is small by design. Right now, we raise one carefully planned litter at a time in our home. Maybe two someday, but we're in no hurry to get there.

Our approach continues to grow as we do. We care deeply about health, temperament, nutrition, socialization, and giving each kitten a strong start, but we're also willing to keep asking questions and changing what we do as we learn more.

If you're considering a Marne River kitten, I want you to know not only what we do, but why we do it. I think you should be able to ask questions, understand the decisions we're making, and know the people behind the kitten you may eventually bring home.

How Marne River Began

We were dog people. Big dog people.

After our German Shepherd passed away, we knew we weren't ready for another dog just yet. Eventually, we started talking about bringing home a cat. Maine Coons came up in a family group chat and almost immediately, I was sold. This intelligent, trainable, social, “dog-like” cat breed had a cool factor that I hadn't known existed. And so began my rapid decent into a very long rabbit hole learning everything I could about this breed.

One Maine Coon very quickly became two, and before the second was even a reality, the idea of breeding had entered the conversation. My husband was training in Thailand at the time, so he's a little more nervous to leave the country now.

I didn't come into this with years of breeding experience. In some ways, I think that's the only reason I was brave enough to consider it. I didn't yet know how much I didn't know.

What I did have was the incredible good fortune of finding two experienced women who were willing to mentor me. They opened the door to a world much bigger than I had imagined: cat shows, genetics, pedigrees, health testing, reproductive health, nutrition, development, and the enormous responsibility that comes with bringing little lives into the world.

I'm a jump-in-feet-first kind of person, but I'm also not new to having to learn something complicated quickly and deeply. The Army taught me that. Parenting has taught me that. Navigating a cancer diagnosis and treatment certainly taught me that. When something matters, I ask questions, find people who know more than I do, learn everything I can, and keep going until I understand it.

Breeding has been no different, except that this time there are little lives depending on the decisions I make. Once I understood the responsibility that came with that, doing this halfway was never going to be an option.

Cat shows led to classes. Classes led to more questions. Questions led to research, conversations with mentors and veterinarians, and inevitably more questions. I'm still learning, and I expect I always will be.

That means being willing to ask questions, seek out people who know more than I do, change my mind when better information warrants it, and be honest about what I know and what I don't.

Marne River has changed our lives in ways I couldn't have anticipated when we brought home our first Maine Coon. It's been harder than I expected, but also more beautiful. There have been difficult lessons, wonderful ones, and plenty that were both.

I don't regret jumping in.

I just understand the depth of the water a lot better now.

Why Marne River?

Marne River is a nod to a part of our family's story that came long before Maine Coons.

My husband and I both served with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, known as the “Rock of the Marne.” When it came time to give this new adventure a name, Marne River felt like a way to carry a small piece of that history forward with us.

But I've also started to wonder whether the name might someday come full circle.

We don't know how many years we'll breed Maine Coons or exactly what Marne River will look like in the future. For cats whose long-term plan includes finding a new home after retirement from breeding, one hope I have is to eventually connect some of them with Veterans who could especially benefit from having a companion.

By that point, we'll have lived with those cats for years. We'll know their personalities, their habits, what they enjoy, and what kind of home suits them. For the right cat and the right Veteran, I can imagine that predictability becoming something really valuable.

It's only a hope for the future right now. But I love the idea that a name chosen to honor one chapter of our lives might someday help us give something back to the community that was such a significant part of it.