It doesn’t take long to realize that Carla Maria Sullwold is a true cat fancier. It’s evident when you first reach the Sullwold residence in North Bergen and see the metallic cat fixture gracing the doorbell.
Inside the house, there are framed pictures of cats everywhere, including an array of photographs on a coffee table.
“Those are the kids,” Sullwold said. “It’s like their class yearbook photos.”
Cats have always been a part of Sullwold’s life.
“I’ve always loved cats, every since I was a little kid,” said Sullwold, who was born in Weehawken, raised in West New York and has now settled in North Bergen. “My husband [Gregory] and I have always loved cats and always had one or two.”
However, six years ago, something clicked in her mind.
“We just wanted a pedigree kitten, a Maine Coon, which are the largest breed of pedigree cats,” Sullwold explained. “We searched for a litter and got a cat that was show quality. I liked the Maine Coons as a breed, but I never thought it would develop into anything.”
But Sullwold started to show her prized feline, Starbuck, at different cat shows and took a liking to the cat fancier world.
“I wanted to learn more and more,” Sullwold said. “I asked a friend if I should take Starbuck to shows. We did, and he did so well. Once you start winning in the beginning, you tend to get hooked very quickly.”
Starbuck’s success encouraged Sullwold to enter the world of cat breeding.
“I’m the kind of person that when I enjoy something, I want to really get into it,” said Sullwold, who previously had careers as a teacher, then as a journalist. “I felt it to be very fulfilling. It was a nurturing kind of thing. Since animals were always a part of my life, I became more aware of animal and animal issues. I just felt like this was something I wanted to do.”
Sullwold has been breeding Maine Coons in her home for the last five years or so. She no longer keeps any for herself. She’s content with the 14 she already owns, ranging from Maine Coons that were bred professionally to strays that she helped to rescue.
But she breeds cats, under the name of Mannahatta Maine Coons, for people all over the world. She recently shipped kittens to Europe and Japan.
“Most of the cats we breed are taken for pets,” Sullwold said. “We breed about 15 kittens a year and keep a strict contract that whoever purchases a kitten can’t have them de-clawed and can’t allow them to go outdoors. It’s a lifetime contract and it’s something I insist on. I’m actually very careful with the people who get our cats.”
Seven cats go to shows
As for her others, seven are routinely taken to area cat shows. Earlier this month, four of Sullwold’s prized felines were shown at the show sponsored by American Association of Cat Enthusiasts, one of four national pedigreed cat organizations, in Port Jervis, N.Y.
Three of her Maine Coons won awards and another won in the Household Pet category. The old veteran, Starbuck, now six years old, took home second prize in his age category, while Billingsgate, a two-year-old black smoke Maine Coon, was the runnerup in the National Best All-Breed Cat. Both Starbuck and Billingsgate also won national best of breed in their respective divisions.
In his career, Starbuck has won 26 Best Cat and two Best in Show titles. He has now been retired from show competition.
Little Chief Paleface finished 15th in his national class in only his second show of the season.
The fourth award-winner was Wotan Friskie, which took second place in the Household Pet category. Friskie’s story is an inspiring one, because he was a neighborhood stray who was severely hurt, with his eye gouged and his jaw and teeth severely damaged. Sullwold rescued the injured cat and took the cat to have five operations to repair the injuries, but Friskie lost his eye in the process.
However, the injuries did not deter Friskie from being entered in show competitions, evidenced by his fine performance in the latest show.
Sullwold says that she takes her cats to local shows about twice monthly during the show season, which recently ended.
“You don’t win anything monetarily,” Sullwold said. “And we now have a basement full of trophies. But it’s the fun of competition that keeps us going. You get so excited about getting Best in Show that you just keep going. I’d like to show more, but we don’t fly anywhere. So we go to shows in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, even Maine.”
After all, they should, considering the cats are Maine Coons.
“It’s more of a social thing now,” Sullwold said. “We have a great common denominator with a lot of friends who also enjoy cats. The shows have to be fun. If you’re not having a good time, then you might as well not do it. You can’t win all the time, but it’s sure nice when you do. It keeps you going and fuels you for a while.”
Sullwold said that her show cats really get into the idea that they are on display.
“As with dogs, they know they’re in a show,” Sullwold said. “Some cats like it and some don’t. We’ve had some that didn’t take to it and didn’t want to do it. Some take better to it than others.”
Like Starbuck, who was not named for the famous coffee company, but rather the ship’s maiden in Herman Melville’s classic, “Moby Dick.”
“Our cats either have the names of towns in New England or American-Indian names,” Sullwold said. “It’s all about nature.”
And it’s only natural that Sullwold care about cats. It’s in her blood.
“However, my husband keeps [saying] that he would like a puppy when he retires,” Sullwold laughs.
Maybe there’s a new career on the horizon.