Oh dear Kim, how I wish I were close enough to help you with this. This is such a common problem (judging by our clients) People want the beautiful long hair, but find it too difficult to keep up with it. And the cats themselves can NOT keep up with it (as it is actually un-natural for the cat to have hair that long.)

Find a groomer who does cats or ask your vet to shave the necessary areas. If you do it NOW while the mats are contained to a few areas, it will prevent a total shave down as the mats spread.

I will try to dig up links or photos of the mat breaker and comb I could not work without.