Nissekatt Cattery has its roots in Zazzara Cattery.  Originally I began as a Maine Coon breeder in 1978.  I started out with a Blue Mackerel Tabby female called Norwynde's Mandi Blu.  She was a small and very petite female but had wonderful coloring.  Back in 1978, people were not doing that much with blues and it was a difficult color to work with if you were showing Maine Coon cats.  The Norwegian Forest Cat came into my life from an article in Cats Magazine in the January of 1997.  I fell in love.  Here was a cat that reminded me of my original Maine Coon (called a Connecticut barn cat) who was a foundation cat.  I had to have one.  The first ones available were a pair but the female was black and white and I had my heart set on a Brown Tabby.  This pair went to Sheila Gira in Michigan.  My girl, Mjavos Sangueetah of Zazzara was born on November 29, 1979 and arrived in the United States in March of 1980.  The rest is history.  "Yago" had the first litter born to survive here in the United States and the sire of that litter was Pans Tigris, the first male imported into the USA by Sheila Gira.  In 1982, I partnered with Mary C. Buckmaster, another Maine Coon breeder (MaryB Cattery) and Nissekatt cattery was born!  Our first cats included Ekdalens Amanda Skadi, Prince Charles ur Skogi, and Mjavos Saugtier.  Unfortunately, my beautiful Yago only had one litter..she had to be neutered early on because of a closed pyometria.  She went on to become a spokescat for the Norwegian Forest Cat and was featured on boxes of cat food, calendars and in magazine articles and television shows.  She did her part for the breed. There are three things that to this day have had a profound effect on Nissekatt cattery.  The first was my marriage to Jeffrey Shaw in 1985! (He bought a kitten from me..that's how we met!) and the other two were very sad things indeed.  In 1991, Nissekatt lost it's co-founder, Mary Buckmaster. She is missed and I hope she will be proud that Nissekatt still exists almost 20 years after its foundation and is still working with some of our original lines.  In 1994 a little bit more of the spirit went when we lost Yago to geriatric heart cardiomyopathy and in the fall of that year we said good-bye to Mjavos Saugtier.  Nissekatt has always done our best to maintain the original look of the Norwegian Forest Cat as it was when they arrived in the United States over 20 years ago.  I, along with Sheila Gira, co-founded the Norwegian Forest Cat Fanciers' Association in June of 1980 for the preservation and protection of the breed.  I would like to think that we have managed in our small cattery to continue to do so and will continue to do so for a very long time to come. Please visit our photo gallery to meet some of our original cats.