i vote maine coon. but yes, you would sneeze yourself to death in a week.

I would also recommend getting two kittens, preferably from the same litter. When you are not home they can play/entertain each other.

We have a great cat we thought was just a white kitten... after a while her ears, nose and feet started to turn tan... my wife was pissed, she thought she got a white cat "now she looks like she has a dirty face all the time!"
Over time the brown turned orange... turned out she is a 'flame point Siamese' (all the years I have been around cats never heard of such a breed).
She is only vocal when she is hungry.

Lily:

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Oh and for discipline get a spray bottle with plain water... cats generally don't respond well to physical discipline (not if you expect them to sit in your lap while you watch TV) eventually all you have to do is reach for the spray bottle and they will stop whatever they are doing.

And they are creatures of habit, I wake at 5:30AM, shower and dress the feed them at 6:00. Lily figured out if she comes into the bedroom early and complains my wife would get up and feed them. 6:00AM turned into 5:00, 5:00 turned into 4:30... finally I told my wife "you are training them to wake us early". She stopped getting up and we are back to 6:00 AM feeding.

They all love lasers.

I think they think it's a portal that gets them off this god forsaken planet and back to their utopian realm where fish fall from the sky, every surface is covered in soft warm cloth fresh from the dryer that is placed in a spot where the perpetual sun shines through windows.

We have a partial maine coon, very pretty cat but needs to be brushed daily or she will reward us with a hair ball strategically place where you will step on it in the dark ... they always seems to come up around 2:00AM (bork... bork... bork)

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Ah, but who is training who?

Lily spontaneously started playing fetch... then a few years later stopped, I think the other cats pulled her aside and told her it wasn't dignified. ;)

If you can't get dog get a Savannah...no other domestic feline is more unique. 20lbs of 8 foot high leaps. That's 8ft into the air with ease. If I was a cat dude I'd have a Savannah.-WW

Russian Blue...

This is my girlfriends Russian Blue.. she is constantly plotting my demise.. this cat is a wonderful house cat that can turn into a fury of claws and teeth in pico seconds..

Then come and head butt you, purr and want to snuggle...

Effing psychos...


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Wild free-range cats are the best
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I've had cats almost all my life (and have cat allergies). I've had limited experience with "hypo-allergenic" cats, but have some friends with these cats and cat allergies.

My friends have had good luck with Devon Rex cats. The Cornish Rex is supposed to be a close second in terms of limited allergens. Also supposedly on the "low-allergen" list is Abyssinians, Siberians, and Balinese. My friends' Devon Rex is a playful little thing that likes to knock stuff over (but is at least quiet).

Our current set of cats are Norwegian Forest cats (which I had never heard of until we got them as kittens) and one black domestic short-hair that adopted us. The forest cats have long hair and the breed is related to the Siberian. I have not had any allergy problems with them (but have had them since kittens). The black short-hair has not been a big allergy trigger.

The mellowest cats I've had were always orange tabby short-hairs. A very close second are black short-hairs. I've had several orange tabbies over the years and a couple black cats. Black cats are always the least-adopted at the shelter for some reason but always seem to have great personalities.

Strictly speaking temperament/personality..

Dogs = Male
Cats = Female

Dogs are easy but need constant "easy" feedback.
Cats are (usually) prissy, high maintenance, and judgemental.

I am not allergic to dander/pets but my wife is. Majorly with cats. We have visited homes where it appeared spotless but my wife was a dripping sneezing coughing mess within 15 minutes. Yep, they had a cat. When we dated I had a cat, incredible tabby mix. Alpha cat. She took meds to temper the allergy and vacuumed religiously 2x a day. I married her :) Now, 23 years later, we have a Maltipoo dog, no fur, he is all hair, and she is fine. No more cats in this house. Admittedly I do like their complex nature. Don't miss the litter-box though.

Had a great Russian Blue, but had no cat better than our Pixie Bob that we rescued out of the blackberries as a kitten.

Fetch, sit, roll over, come whenever you called him-no matter day or night, right at the door when you came home, whatever the time. If you did not like him or he did not like you, it was still your fault.

Great stories! and quite the personalities!

my wife want a RagDog cat. she is practicing her jedi mind trick to get me to let her.

cute ass cats..but it's another cat.

I like the Heinz 57 variety barn cats that seem to come and go from our farm....no mess, no smell, just sometimes a bit annoying while you are trying to work on something, and they are rubbing up against you, and in the way.

The broken one on the left doing Yoga is the screaming diva, Natasha.

She sleeps like that all the time. Freaked me out the first time I saw her doing it.

Far right is her brother Thor.

The beached whale is Gandalf then the super slinky elegant Ninja cat Loki.

They all get along like peas and carrots. No drama whatsoever which is a first for us.

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They have personalities and you want them to be part of 'the pride' - similar to how dogs are part of the pack. Unlike dogs, they don't understand the order; you are the alpha and they are not. Cats don't give a f***. However, they can be great. Keep them entertained, bond, and (I can't stress this enough) get them good food. One of my cats, Stitch, has IBD and he literally craps on the floor, the couch, the rug when he gets a bad flare-up. Aggravating to say the least. Ed however is great. The only issue he has is being food motivated and tries to eat Stitch's food. Aside from that he loves kids and attention. Stitch has limits to personal interaction, very much a "look, don't touch" and "on my terms" kind of animal.

+1 on the "good food" advice.

It's astonishing how much utter CRAP is in pet food. It's even worse than what's happened to the human food supply in recent years - downright scary. Be prepared to spend a fair amount of time researching what's good / acceptable and not misleading, embellishment or outright lies. Consider your sources carefully. And to add to the difficulty, the cats don't always like what you wish they would (although if they get hungry enough they'll eat darned nearly anything in my experience...) Also it's a moving landscape - brand "x" that's good today might sell out and be garbage tomorrow and vice-versa. Generally speaking though, do your homework and (generally speaking) you get what you pay for. You're making the choices for them and it should be approached as a serious responsibility - like you would do for an infant child.

One of the big problems (alluded to above) is that cats get pretty indiscriminate when they want to eat. As such, a lot of pet food manufacturers have gotten away with putting really horrible stuff into their food knowing they'll eat it anyway if given the choice between that and nothing. In general, avoid ANYTHING that involves "by-products" or ANYTHING from China (reference the gluten incident a few years ago that killed a lot of pets - it hasn't gotten much better since).

Some occasional meat products (human-consumption grade) help I think (I'm vegetarian so the only meat products I buy in the grocery store are for the cats). I've found the higher-end kibble / hard stuff (Wild Blue, Nutro NaturalChoice, etc.) to be decent, then supplement with occasional moist food and as always, make sure they have LOTS of fresh water available and a clean litterbox area (unless you're lucky and can toilet train them, which can be done if you start early or get a cat that's been trained since kittenhood). Self-cleaning litterboxes are a wonderful thing (but you do still need to empty them occasionally, like every day or two).

They like treats (Greenies of all flavor varieties get bought in bulk).

The Maine Coon we had was quite a mischievous and intelligent delicate character. He's sit under a tree and try to chirp(ech ech ech) at birds to bring them in. He had a sensitive personality, though, and preferred being in the outdoors to the rambunctious events in the house. When he didn't like something he'd stay mad for days but it was more of a quiet disappointment. He was a big boy too and stood up to his bossy cat brother when needed. He passed early of 'kidney problems from blocked urethra as a result of being spayed too early'. Not sure.

The Bengal is a total stud. Not afraid of anything including pit bull mixes. He goes for walks with the dog and me. Very alpha personality and sometimes a jerk. For instance a guy with two full grown dogs straining and barking at the leash will approach and he will lay down in the middle of the sidewalk in front of them. Go figure. Or I'll be on the computer and startled by a a big meow ("food/out now" in cat language). He will spread sideways across the bed and use his claws to establish territorial gains. We've had our cat discussions about clawing daddy in the middle of the night.
He does shed as much as a long-hair.