Thread: Should I consider a rescue cat or a 'retired' breeding cat?

One thing which has been bothering me slightly is the fact that I am over 65, and my health is not 100% as the result of a couple of major back operations. Once the time comes to get a new 'pet', if I decided to get a Maine Coon kitten, then not only would it be 4 to 5 years before he/she was a fully mature, cat which had attained full size, but additionally he or she could be expected to live for 15 years. Being realistic, this might mean that I could well die before the cat did, leaving another 'problem' for my wife (I know this all sounds morbid!).
Therefore, on thing I had thought about was the idea of perhaps getting a 'rescue' Maine Coon, or a cat which has been retired from actual breeding, but who still has many years of happy and active life ahead of him or her.
Some questions spring to mind. You never know how a cat which is up for rescue has been handled in the past, and what traumatic experiences it will have gone through. How well do Maine Coons adapt to a new environment, where he or she will be loved, and wanted to be around?
If getting an ex-breeding cat, will such have been used to lots of human company whilst in the breeders care, and thus fully socialised? I'm thinking that perhaps in this case, it would be a matter of which breeder you are talking about, definitely NOT from a 'kitten factory', but perhaps from a breeder who is in the business because they are simply Maine Coon devotees, and not in the business to churn out kittens in an attempt to make a profit.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?