About Us
Crazy Cat Couple
Pika - Pretty Princess
Boo - Beautiful Boy
My name is Holly and animals (as well as dinosaurs and palaeontology) have always been my passion! I grew up with a family dog and didn't have cats as a child but have always loved all animals and when I was 16 I started volunteering at a cat shelter as a 'cat cuddler' and my love for cats and kittens was firmly solidified! A few years later I adopted my first rescue cats, Pika and Boo, alongside my now husband Elliot and our family has grown from there! As well as our cats, we also keep several species of reptiles, including our grumpy chameleon Nigel and our lovely little tortoise, Lettuce.
I have a first class masters degree in Zoology from The University of Southampton which included modules such as animal behaviour, and the welfare of our pets is of the highest importance to me. I am also a pet and wildlife artist so my love for animals encompasses everything I do.
I'm Elliot, the other human here at Manekicoons! I work as a software engineer full time but love spending my free time with our animals, they also make great company when working from home.
I love playing games and watching TV, and the cats love to watch, like they're joining for the adventure! Sometimes they get a little cheeky and try to go through the TV but mostly spend the time cuddling.
Our animals are our world and our cats are our babies. Our cats all have free range of our house and access to our cat safe enclosed garden (ProtectaPet). We have several large cat trees throughout our home and the cats often opt to sleep on our bed with us. Above all else, our cats are beloved family members. Our cats are all fed raw food and our kittens are weaned onto raw food before going to their new families. Our kittens are also socialised and exposed to normal household sounds and experiences such as hairdryers and vacuum cleaners, as well as being regularly brushed to get them used to being groomed and handled. Our kittens will also be litter trained before leaving us and we are happy to begin harness training on an individual basis if this is something you are hoping to do with the kitten you choose.
In Loving Memory
Behind The Name
In early 2020, a pair of extremely unwell domestic shorthair kittens (moggies) were surrendered to a vets in the Midlands. One of these kittens sadly passed within a few hours of arriving at the vets, and the outlook for the other kitten seemed bleak. Fortunately for her, a friend of mine who worked at that vets offered to hand raise the kitten, who was approximately 4 weeks old, to try desperately to save her life. This friend and her colleague, who helped to hand raise her, are the reason that the kitten survived, but she needed a forever home. That home, was ours.
We chose the name Maneki-Neko, the name of the Japanese lucky cats (also known as beckoning cats), because she was incredibly lucky that my friend and her colleague had managed to save her, raise her, and she had recovered from her suspected anaemia (she was surrendered riddled with fleas). I will forever be grateful to these wonderful ladies for saving her life, and trusting us with her for her next chapter.
At 8 weeks old, Maneki-Neko came to her forever home with us. We affectionately called her 'Neeko' and she was so full of love, life, and chaos. Watching the crazy, beautiful young cat she became, you never would've guessed she had such a rough start in life. Neeko got on incredibly well with our two older rescue cats, Pika and Boo, and was full of love for us, often sleeping under the covers with us in the winter.
As a young couple, Neeko was the first kitten we ever had in our lives (having rescued Pika and Boo when they were 4 and 5 years old respectively), and with this came a unique bond, we cherished watching her grow and she was well accustomed to being showered with hugs and love from a small age. Neeko was incredibly special, our soul cat.
When we first registered our cattery name with TICA, long before our first queen - Mitzi - was born, (we did a lot of planning and research beforehand!) we decided to name our cattery Manekicoons, after our beautiful girl Maneki-Neko. We decided we would ensure that all of our future kittens had the life and love Neeko had, as opposed to her awful start in life. At the time, Neeko was happy, healthy, and living her best life, but for some reason naming our cattery after her felt intrinsically right.
Our whole world came crashing down in September of 2021, when we tragically lost Neeko to heart failure. The loss was sudden and unexpected, as she'd been completely healthy for the year and a half since she came to us and she'd had multiple vet checks with not so much as a heart murmur detected. Within 10 hours of the onset of symptoms (and with the vet initially suspecting a simple asthma attack, before discovering the horrible truth with a scan), Neeko went rapidly downhill. Devastatingly, we never got to bring her home, and she passed away in our arms at the out of hours vets later the same day. Our world was broken and it took us a long time to get back into the swing of everyday life without her there.
The name of our cattery, Manekicoons, now has more meaning to us than we ever could have imagined. This is her namesake and her legacy, and we will do right by her and ensure that all kittens which carry her name will live the happiest, healthiest, and longest lives possible, as she should have.
Rest in Peace Neeko
At time of writing, it's been three years since we lost you, we still think about you daily and we will never forget you. I hope we meet again someday.