Yv you have a lot of MC's dont you?
We do, 3 MC's [2 girls and a boy], a blue boy 'Exotic Long Hair' - or rather, thats what the pedigree papers his original owner was given say, we have our doubts as he looks like a british long hair [google them both, they are quite different facially], plus 3 moggies. Oh yes, and the 2 Jack Russells, who are of course totally put upon by the cats and bear it with good grace and an understanding that more claws are best respected. Well, that and the fact the cats are at least as big as the dogs, a couple of them bigger.
Matt, we are quite lucky that only 2 of our long haired ones tend to mats [they all hate the regular grooming but its gets done with the assistance of many Dreamies] and again with food related help, any that do develop I can trim away myself with a good pair of hair dressing scissors. However, last summer, they were really bad, I could get rid of the lot and 24hrs later, they would be as bad again. So much so, I did consider the trip to the vet for them. It was only when I was chatting to some of the staff at the rescue and discovered all their own long haired cats, and those in the centre were all suffering similarly, I decided its was weather/humidity related and decided to keep trying to keep on top of it and finally as autmun kicked in, it all eased off and back to normal grooming being all that was needed. It was a right PITA though I am happy to admit.
Steve, luckily, we don't seem to have any issues, possibly because they all arrived within a couple of years. The biggest problem is the kitten and Blue - blue was a very solitary cat and as I said earlier, a bit of an oddity and whilst he is fine with the bigger cats, he does get a bit rough when playing with little one. He is learning that squeals mean he has to back off, he is getting too rough, so its getting better, but we have been woken by his 'playing' sometimes.