Picture of a Maine Coon ruff marked out

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Picture of a Maine Coon ruff marked out! As if it needed it! Pic: Image by Mami Miyashima from Pixabay 

The CFA breed standard is ambivalent about Maine Coons having a ruff. I had thought that they were obligatory for this cat breed but the standard does not support this viewpoint. Here is the relevant setion:

COAT: heavy and shaggy; shorter on the shoulders and longer on the stomach and britches. Frontal ruff desirable. 

So the ruff is 'desirable'. Not mandatory. The cat illustrated has the frontal ruff. I have seen ruffs far more pronounced than this. I wonder if a Maine Coon show cat would win if he or she did not have a ruff? Some of the outstanding Maine Coons that you see on the internet have these important features exaggerated such as the hair at the tips of the ears (lynx tipped ears), the massively square muzzle and of course a huge lion-like mane which is the ruff.

The cat that you see in the photograph is not in anyway exaggerated. He or she is a standard-looking Maine Coon, a ginger tabby.

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