Maine Coon Profile
The Maine Coon is one of the most popular breeds at show tables. This shaggy feline shares its affection with the entire family, but elects a single person as its beloved owner. The breed sports four color classes: solid, tabby, tabby with white and parti-color. Patterns include the classic tabby, the mackerel tabby and the patched tabby. The Maine Coon is the second most popular breed in America and has earned the nickname, “The Gentle Giant.”
Color: The classic Maine Coon is a brown tabby or brown tabby with white, but the breed is available in virtually every hue, with the exception of chocolate and lavender colors, or pointed or ticked tabby patterns. Their eyes are golden to green, though white Maine Coons can be blue or odd-eyed.
Grooming: That long coat is deceptively easy to care for. A good combing twice a week eliminates matting and reduces shedding and hairballs. Most will endure and many actually enjoy an occasional bath when introduced to the ritual as a kitten.
Best Home: Maine Coons take it all in stride. They do well in both active and quiet households.
National Breed Club: United Maine Coon Cat Association; www.cffinc.org/umcca/memapp.htm
Personality: Often called “gentle giants,” Maine Coons are known to accept people and activities with easy-going grace. Affectionate and social, they love to be near their owners, play fetch and can by taught to stroll on a leash.
Appearance: Maine Coons are known for their large size, with females averaging up to 16 pounds and males up to 18, with some tipping the scales at 20-plus pounds. With a long, shaggy coat that lays close to the body, a bushy long tail, tufted paw pads and large ears adorned with furry tufts and “lynx tips” on top, their build reflects the Maine Coon’s origins in the cold Northeast.
Cat Breed Profiles
Find your perfect cat companion in CatChannel’s Cat Breed Profiles. Out of the 54 breeds on CatChannel, you can find cat personalities, cat characteristics and cat temperament all in one place. Browse by cat breed name and learn all you can about your favorite cats like Maine Coons, Siamese, Persians and more. Browse cat owners’ cat breed pictures, too, and see the candid side of cat breeds.
Your house cat has some pretty impressive cat cousins. See what wild cat species live around the world – and in your own back yard. From lions and tigers to cougars and bobcats, wild cats show us the untamed heritage of our domestic cats.
Looking for a curly-coated cat? Browse cat breed profiles and see listings for cats with curly fur such as the American Wirehair, Cornish Rex, Devon Rex, LaPerm and Selkirk Rex. Find the reason behind these cats’ curly coats and view pictures of their curly-fur cat antics.
View profiles of the top cats with long hair. Take a look at professional and reader photos of longhaired cats to get a glimpse of these beauties with long coats. Check out the Maine Coon, Himalayan, Persian, Ragdoll, Ragamuffin and more to find your perfect feline.
If shorthaired cats are up your alley, check out the profiles of cats with short hair. Abyssinians, American Shorhairs, Domestic Shorthairs, Exotic Shorthairs, Pixiebobs and Siamese are all on display. CatChannel also offers a profile of the cat with the shortest hair – the hairless cat the Sphynx
National Feral Cat Day, Oct. 16, was established by stray and feral cat advocates Alley Cat Allies to raise education and support for humane and effective policies that protect feral cats.
“Alley Cat Allies launched National Feral Cat Day in 2001 to raise awareness about feral cats, promote Trap-Neuter-Return, and recognize the millions of compassionate citizens who care for cats,” said Becky Robinson, president of Alley Cat Allies. “On National Feral Cat Day and all year round, people all across the country work to draw attention to the cause and press their local leaders for humane policies for feral cats. This is truly a national movement.”
Feral cats are not socialized to people and are less adoptable, so feral cats taken to animal shelters are almost always killed. Being killed in an animal shelter remains the leading documented cause of death for cats, Robinson said. TNR ends the breeding cycle and stabilizes the population, halting further deaths.
“There is much more work to do to educate our neighbors and leaders about the need to launch humane programs that really work for our communities,” she said.
Robinson noted that the United States is responding to this need. This year’s National Feral Cat Day will see 250 events in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Canada, including spay/neuter drives, community celebrations and workshops that educate neighbors about the best and most humane ways to help cats in the community.
For the first time, Alley Cat Allies also gave awards to a number of local nonprofits across the country for the most creative and innovative community programs, including five “National Feral Cat Day Superstars,” who were awarded $1,000 each for their unique life-saving programs.
A full listing of national events, as well as more information about how people can get involved on National Feral Cat Day, is available here. Posters, T-shirts and other fun NFCD-themed items are also available.
General: The Maine Coon is a working cat, muscular, solid, medium to large in size with the look of the wild. This cat is a result of natural evolution, capable of surviving a harsh climate with little or no human assistance. Thus, this cat may be reserved initially toward strange people and new situations, yet the Maine Coon does have an amiable disposition. Males may be larger, females are usually smaller. Females should not be penalized because of this size difference. Allowance should be made for slow maturation, as a Maine Coon does not achieve ultimate type until three to four years of age. Type must not be sacrificed for size, or size for type.
Head:
Shape: The head is medium in width and slightly longer than wide with allowance for broadening and jowls in males. Muzzle is square when viewed from any angle. Cheek bones are high. Chin must be firm and in line with nose and upper lip. Profile: The nose is slightly concave with no break. Ears: Large, tall, wide at base, tapering to appear pointed, with lynx-like tipping and inner tufts extending beyond the outer edge of the ears. They are set high on the head, the distance between them being equal to the width of an ear at its base.
Eyes: Large, round, wide-set, with a slightly oblique setting. Eye color may be shades of green, gold or amber. Clarity of color is desired. There is no relationship between eye color and coat color, except in solid white cats, which may be blue-eyed, amber-eyed, green-eyed or odd-eyed.
Body and Tail:
Body: Medium to large in size, muscular and broad chested. The body should be long with all parts proportioned to create a rectangular appearance. Neck medium to long; may be thick and muscular in older males. The body should feel solid, with firm muscle and no flabbiness. When viewed from the rear, there is a definite squareness to the rump. Legs/Feet: Sturdily boned, wide-set, medium in length, in proportion to the body. Feet large, round and well tufted underneath and between the pads. Tail: Long, at least the length of the body, wide at the base and tapering to the tip.
Coat:
Length: Coat is uneven in length and markedly subject to seasonal variation. Fur on head, neck and shoulders is short, becoming gradually longer along the back toward the tail and down the sides toward the belly. Britches and belly fur are full and shaggy. The coat flows smoothly down the body, continuing in the same manner on the tail. There is a frontal ruff, generally heavier on males than females. The tail is heavy furred, long and flowing, but it is not bushy as is a fox’s brush. Texture: More or less self maintaining, the coat is warm with a light density undercoat covered by a water proof outer coat. The coat is not fluffy. Coat texture may vary with coat color.
Color:
White trim around the chin and lip line allowed except in solid color cats.
Condition:
There is no point score for condition as such. Flabbiness, obesity, emaciation, dull coat, evidence of illness, or any other indication that the cat is not in good physical condition or has not had proper grooming are faults and should be penalized under the appropriate heading constituting the point score.
Innovative software allows users to operate remote-controlled robotic toys to entertain Maine Coon Cats that are up for adoption.
Cat lovers can log onto Bideawee, the New York animal welfare organisation’s website (MaineCoonBreeder.info
), and choose the ‘Kitty Play Date’ option. They are then launched into real-time interaction with cats that are housed in one of Bideawee’s rooms.
Users can watch cats jump, pounce and grab at the toys that are wired to respond instantaneously to remote commands.
It is all thanks to the iPet Companion kit which installs robotic pet toys in the same room as the Maine Coon Cats and which provides a simple software which enables control of the toys through a web browser.
Leslie Granger, the Vice President for Development at Bideawee says, ‘the difference between playing with a Maine Coon Cats in the same room and playing remotely is number one: it’s a unique experience. Not everybody has ever played with a cat remotely and moved toys around. But also it’s something that I can do from anywhere and people can do from anywhere. They can do it from all over the world; they can play with the cats at Bideawee in New York. So it’s a great experience.’
Each user is allowed two minutes of play but there is no limit to how many times you can log in for a play date.
Bideawee claims that more than 2,000 users from as far away as Asia have logged in to play with the cats since it was launched just over a week ago.
As with many breeds of cats, the origin of the Maine Coons, in fact, is unknown. Rather, they appeared in the crossing of domesticated shorthaired and longhaired cats brought by traders from Asia Minor in Maine and other parts of New England at a time when registration of cats is not conducted. Maybe that in those days Maine Coon lived in freedom and has their name from the appearance and habits, resembling raccoons. Both are distinguished by a long fur, as well as inter-breed cats are not uncommon color with tabby pattern, similar to a raccoon amplified. But any old registration data does not exist; Maine Coons to the end of the XIX century have been widespread in the eastern U.S. states. Many Maine Coons participated in the first New York exhibition of cats (1860) and it Maine Coon raccoon won the title Best in Show at Madison Square Garden’s in New York in 1895. Shortly thereafter, however, interest in the breed almost died out until the formation in 1953 club Maine coon, contributed to the revival of interest in him and the organization of regular exhibitions of cats that breed. Maine coon long gone beyond the limits of the state, which gave it a name. It is well known and bred now everywhere in the United States and even in Europe. If try to reduce to a pair of phrases, the oldest history of breeds of cats, probably, most of them would sound like this: the first representatives of the breed were found in England (in France) were then exported to the United States, where for many years breeders “have made the modern face of the rock. Cat, of which we speak today, is something quite different. This is a real Native American cat. “Raccoon cat from the state of Maine – has long lived on farms and in its responsibility to fight with great rodents,” Raccoon cat from the State of Maine “- the first cat that was presented at the Cat Show in the United States in the late 19 v. On first exhibition in Boston in January 1878 were submitted more than a dozen representatives of this breed, called in the publications of that time not only as “gentle giants”. Letter from Mrs Jackie Bdzhonness (Mrs. Jack Bjonness) to Mrs. Rhode Ldzhostad (Mrs. Rod Ljostad) describes a Maine Coon that time as follows: “snout more elongated than the domestic shorthair cat, the length of hair – about twice shorter than that Persian. High end tufted ears, like the ears lynx. The cat is high on the legs, not compact, like a Persian, but no one will dare to call Maine Coon slim. They are extremely tough…. “Since that time, started the” official “history of the breed, which is described in detail in numerous publications. The earlier history of the breed is shrouded in mystery. Cats got on the American continent for a long time with the first ships from Europe. They are the descendants of those same ships cat that catches mice without which did not go to see any ship. In what century it was exactly – can only guess. Was it a cat or cat’s settlers, escaped after a shipwreck and feral – is anyone’s guess. History of cats in this case is closely intertwined with the history of the development of America.
Incredible, but still many are inclined to believe that those same cats, arriving on the American continent, clashed with the North American lynx («forcible argument in favor of the versions are known to everybody tassels on the ears), or even a raccoon (in favor of this version is part of the name “Coon» (rac (c) oon; coon), which means “raccoon” and coat color, the color of raccoon fur. A version is extremely romantic and attractive, but has no ground under its feet because of species differences and the impossibility inters specific crosses. The second riddle breed Maine coon – long hair. As is known, the ships traveled mostly short-haired cats, woolly same adorn palaces and luxury. One legend tells that the breed Maine Coon is obliged to Marie-Antoinette. Captain Samuel was trying hard to prepare escape beleaguered queen of France in 1793. A ship full of things that the queen, known admirer of luxury, considered it necessary to seize the road: luxury furniture, costly gadgets and six beloved cat’s queen. But fate decreed otherwise. Escape failed, the Queen was executed and the captain was forced to flee for fear of persecution. This luxury cat disgraced Queen came to the Americas, where they found a new home and were taken into the society shorthair cat that arrived on the continent before. Another, but not the least bit romantic version tells us that there once was an English captain, who has the nickname “Raccoon” and the well-known fact that he adored cats and not to cruise without his purring suite. On his ship inhabited by a lot of expensive cats, especially Persian and Angora. The captain traveled to the shores of America. People, who fell into the hands of kittens with this ship, understandably said “these kittens breed Maine Coon. This is a legend, but in general we can say that the appearance of long-haired cats in the Americas due to the economic development of America. The first settlers were very poor and they were, of course, accompanied by short-haired cats. With the development of the country, it becomes attractive to a growing number of very wealthy people, and their companions to the shores of New England are long-haired cats. It is their descendants began to render habitable the east coast and, of course, survived the stronger and more adapted individuals.