The Maine Coon Cat is the official Maine State Cat and one of the oldest natural breeds in North America. Many myths surround its origin. A popular theory is that the Maine Coon Cat is the result of mating between domestic, semi-wild cats and raccoons, but this is biologically impossible. Still, this legend led to the adoption of the name “Maine Coon”.
Another popular belief says that this breed originated from the six pet cats which Marie Antoinette sent to Wiscasset, Maine when she was trying to leave France during the French Revolution.
Most breeders today think that the Maine Coon Cat comes from matings between existing short haired domestic cats and overseas longhair cats such as Angora types or the ones brought to America by Vikings.
For more than a century ago, the Maine Coon Cat is a strong, healthy and beautiful breed of domestic cat that successfully survives the hostile winters of New England.
- Appearance
The Maine Coon is a very large cat (for example, a male can weight more than 9kg), featuring long shaggy coat. Their silky coat is water resistant and easy to groom. Main Coons have extra long flowing tail, while their ears are tufted.
- Personality
Also knows as the Gentle Giant of the cat world, the Maine Coon Cat is gentle, loyal, loving, friendly, smart, and sociable with children and other pets. Able to adopt a large variety of meows, chirps and trills, it can be easily trained to walk on a leash.
- Colors
The Maine Coon Cat comes in a large palette of colors, including brown, cream, red, smoke, silver, blue, black, white and many hues of these colors. This breed can also feature various patterns such as tabby, torbie, mackerel, tortie, pathc, solid. As for white, it can either accompany or not these colors and patterns. Eye color varies, but green is the most common one.
The closest breed to the Maine Coon is the Norwegian Forest Cat, so the theory that the Maine Coon was brought by the Vikings seems to make sense.
Maine Coon Cat Pictures Gallery
