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Showing posts from March, 2021

Are Maine Coons dangerous?

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No of course not. Don't be put off by the size, be  impressed instead. Maine Coons are no more dangerous than any other well bred, well raised and socialised domestic cat which means they are a delight to live with.  I think people have asked if Maine Coons are dangerous because they are the biggest domestic cat breed and can look intimidating but the key is how well they are socialised. All Maine Coons are well socialised because they have been selectively bred. This means artificial breeding by breeders as opposed to random breeding as occurs among free-living moggies.  Maine Coons are not dangerous. Photo: Pinterest video screenshot. And it is a duty of cat breeders to raise their cats underfoot which means they are raised with humans and sometimes with other animals around from as soon as they cat get around. It gets them used to people; to learn that people are not dangerous (some are!).  The only time domestic cats can be dangerous to people is when they are unsocialised
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Blue Smoke Maine Coon

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This is Foxhilltigers Milky way blue (smoke) Maine Coon. They are a Maine Coon breeder in Germany ( link to their website ). He is a great looking cat and it is nice to have the coat type from the person who created the cat. Blue smoke Maine Coon. Photo:  Fox Hill Tigers. It can be tricky to decide the type of coat on a purebred cat because there is a huge array of variations and there can be subtle differences. The Maine Coon has a large range of acceptable coat types. This cat looks absolutely classic in terms of Maine Coon appearance. I am sure he has done well at cat shows if he has attended them. His face is all you want in a Maine Coon. Gentle but strong. The breeder is located in Engelsbrand, Germany:
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Location: 75331 Engelsbrand, Germany
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QC's Maine Coon cat features in virtual Old Bailey hearing

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Naz Hussain QC was conducting a virtual hearing at the Old Bailey from his kitchen! I'm sure this sort of hearing takes place all the time with the modern coronavirus pandemic social isolation rules taking effect across the country. On this occasion - and this can't be unexpected - Naz Hussain's beautiful grey Maine Coon cat meandered into view, lurking in the background before walking onto the keyboard and into frame for the court to see. Naz Hussain QC's Maine Coon 'Columbo'. Photo: Naz Hussain QC. The cat's name is called Columbo and the judge having spotted Columbo asked if the cat was the instructing solicitor for the senior criminal defence barrister, Mr Hussain! This prompted Mr Hussain to jokingly respond by saying that the cat was his replacement junior (i.e. a junior barrister accompanying the QC). Stardom beckoned and Columbo now has a social media webpage: AdvoCat_QC on Twitter which will chronicle Columbo's activities. Apparently there w
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Northern Ireland Maine Coon partially blinded by a shotgun blast

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NORTHERN IRELAND - NEWS AND COMMENT: Although the story is not hot off the press it is news nonetheless and it does tell us how vulnerable domestic cats are to spontaneous acts of violence, often by young men. In this instance the event occurred in Halfgayne Road in Maghera, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland.  Maine Coon Leo before being shot and partially blinded  by a shotgun blast. Photo. Maureen. Maureen Newman's Maine Coon, whose name is Leo was with his owner on their property. Leo climbed along the garage roof. It appears that he was visible from the road because somebody, using a shotgun, blasted at Leo. He staggered to safety behind the garage wall where he became trapped. He spent several hours in the same spot in severe pain as Maureen tried to entice him out of his hiding. She said that it was about 8:15pm on Saturday night after she had just fed her cat with some treats when he was shot. They were outside at the aviary with her dog a King Charles spaniel whose na
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Location: Main St, Maghera BT46 5AE, UK
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Grey Maine Coon looking wisely human

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This is another picture of one of those strangely bizarre and compelling human-faced wise Maine Coons. You may have seen them on the Internet. They look at the camera with complete calm as if they know full well that they are imbued with the wisdom of ages even though they might be only about 12 months old!  These Maine Coons are selectively bred to look like this are little masterpieces and it must have taken many years of artificial breathing i.e. selective breeding to achieve this result. It must have been done with a distinct purpose and objective. It wouldn't happen by accident. Grey Maine Coon looking wisely human. Photo: Twitter. You almost feel that you are looking at a person. I wonder what it is like to live with a cat like this. Does it help the human caretaker to relate better with their domestic cat companion if they look like a person! I know people relate to their domestic cat companions as little people but in this instance you almost are! You would expect them t
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Ginger tabby Maine Coon with huge plumed tail outside on leash

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This is a picture of a very impressive Maine Coon cat with a ginger tabby coat, a huge, plumed tail who is enjoying the outside on a leash. It is nice to see such a handsome cat on a leash outside the home. It is the only way such a cat could safely enjoy the outside so this photograph ticks all the boxes. This appears to be a backyard (garden). Ginger tabby Maine Coon with huge plumed tail outside on leash. Photo: Twitter. The most noticeable feature is of, course, the tail and Maine Coons are meant to have tails just like this one: long fur, flowing or in the language of cat breeders "plumed". A tail like this is part of the breed standard and all good cat breeders will aspire to this sort of appearance. It is one of the special features of this breed as is the square muzzle and the large ears which are lynx tipped. The fur should be shaggy (TICA) and there should be lots of tufts of hair sticking out between the toes! I don't know how many try to take their cat outs
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Maine Coon kitten with whopping ear furnishings

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What the hell are 'ear furnishings'? One of the features that a Maine Coon (MC) should have if they are bred to be in line with the CFA breed standard is well developed ear furnishings. I've used the phrase "ear furnishings" because that is the sort of phrase we hear in the cat fancy. Of course, I'm not referring to sofas and armchairs in a person's home. I'm specifically referring to the long hair inside the ear flap of this highly popular cat companion. But ear furnishings also applies to the tufts of hair sticking out of the tops of the ear flaps - these are lynx tipped ears. Maine Coon kitten with whopping ear furnishings. Screenshot. It's remarkable in some ways that the MC breed standard demands that the cat has hairy ears! That is what it comes down to. All men have their ear hair trimmed and removed whereas Maine Coon breeders use their best efforts to achieve the opposite. The CFA breed standard with respect to ears states: Shape: large
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Location: United States
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Shotgun leaves 25 pellets in Maine Coon cat

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CRAVEN DISTRICT OF NORTH YORKSHIRE, UK - NEWS AND VIEWS: Norman is an 18-month-old Maine Coon. He went outside on Saturday morning and returned 27 hours later on Sunday. He managed to get home despite being shot with what is believed to be a doublebarrelled shotgun because of the number of pellets inside him. Yes, he had 25 pellets inside him some of them were quite deep and too difficult to remove. Norman and X-ray. Photo (left) Josie Simpson. Right: veterinarian's X-ray. When his owners saw him they thought he had been hit by a car. They found him on the stairs. They don't know how he managed to get home. When he was touched he cried out in pain. He couldn't walk properly and couldn't move his tail. They rushed him to the veterinary clinic. He was x-rayed and the 25 lead pellets were seen inside him. Josie Simpson is shocked and devastated. They've spoken to the press because they want to raise awareness of the sick-minded people who may be shooting cats in the
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Location: Craven District, UK
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Why do Maine Coons make weird noises?

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Maine Coons don't make weird noises in all honesty. They may chirp or trill more than the average domestic cat but even that is an individual cat characteristic - random bred cats trill and chirp too. Each individual domestic cat has their own repertoire of sounds that they make. The books will list the sort of sounds that domestic cats make and you might believe that you can pigeonhole all the sounds Maine Coons make into this list but you can't. Young Maine Coon speaks - meows. Picture: Pixabay. This is because there are millions of variants of the standard sounds. So, for example, the cat meow can be produced in a wide range of ways to the point where you can't really recognise it as a meow. It is a standard sound the cat makes. The video below proves my point. The few sounds that you'll hear are all standard within the parameters of domestic cat vocalisations. You'd think that the Maine Coon being a large cat would make loud sounds but, no. They are kitten-li
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Location: Maine, USA
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Silver collar given to Maine Coon Cosey in winning first American cat show is at CFA Central Office

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This is an interesting snippet of information about the Maine Coon cat. We know that this cat breed originated around the late 1860s when the very first Maine Coons called "Maine cats" or "Coon cats" were exhibited at informal cat shows by farmers in the state of Maine. There was one show, perhaps the only one, I don't know, called the "Maine State Champion Coon Cat". It was held at the local Skowhagen Fair.  Award given to Maine Coon in winning first American cat show pre the Madison Square Garden show of 1895. The award is at the CFA central office. It is a silver collar. Is Cosey wearing it in this photograph? Picture in public domain. The domestic cat ancestors of these Maine cats were the immigrant cats accompanying settlers from Europe in the 1600s. They landed at Maine. And it's is probably fair to say that the first major cat show held at Madison Square Garden in New York City was duly won by a female brown tabby whose name was Cosey. S
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Location: 4 Pennsylvania Plaza, New York, NY 10001, USA
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What makes Maine Coon cats special?

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It is fairly obvious to me why a lot of people regard the Maine Coon cat as special. They are the biggest domestic cat breed and the biggest domestic cat barring the top end wild cat hybrids such as the F1 Savannah cat. Size counts in the world of cats.  What makes Maine Coon cats special? Size is the answer and this is one of many huge MCs on the internet. They seem to be quite common nowadays. Picture: in  public domain. And there are some fascinatingly huge Maine coon cats featured on the Internet. They look like large dogs. There is a kind of obsession with big domestic cats. But size in any context is important and normally it is big that is better than small.  So it is about humans playing God. It is artificial selection or otherwise known as selective breeding. Nature wouldn't have done this. The original Maine Coon cats would have been like any other domestic cat with medium-long hair. They would have been quite non-descript relative to some of the day's super outstandi
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Picture of a beautiful brown tabby Maine Coon

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 A cracker of a cat. A beauty. Picture of a beautiful brown tabby Maine Coon. Photo: Pinterest and in the public domain. Brown tabbies are arguably the best Maine Coons reminding us of their origins as barn cats in Maine, USA. I have a full page on the tabby cat coat if you're interested -  click here to read it. This cat is not bred to extreme to be interesting and impressive which is much better. This is a nice well-rounded cat of reasonable proportions fitting the breed standard.
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How can I tell if my cat is a Maine Coon?

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You can tell for sure if your cat is a Maine Coon through a written pedigree, a formal document, which you should have.  The fact that you are asking the question makes it pretty certain that your cat is not a Maine Coon.  Nearly everyone who lives with a genuine Maine Coon knows it because they bought the cat from a cat breeder and they acquired a document which is evidence that the cat is a Maine Coon. The bottom line is that there is written evidence. PrairieBaby Maine Coon cats. One of their Maine Coons. Photo copyright Helmi Flick. The said document will set out the pedigree of the cat concerned for at least four generations. All the cats in the pedigree will be a Maine Coon. This might be referred to as 'MCO' which stands for Maine Coon. Every purebred cat should be registered with a cat association aka cat club. If a Maine Coon is registered with The International Cat Association (TIC), for example, they will issue this document showing the pedigree. I presume that th
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Pictures of Lotus a huge Maine Coon

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Lotus is well known on the internet. I don't know if he is male or she is female! It sounds like a female name so here goes. She is one of those celebrity cats and genuinely enormous. At the top end of Maine Coon size which these days does indeed mean enormous. She is the size of a bobcat but not as heavy. Bobcats are all muscle and Maine Coons are quite rangy and slender beneath all that ruffled, shaggy fur. Lotus a huge Maine Coon with a superb plumed tail as expected. Picture: Instagram. She has a succesful Instagram page which is where these pictures come from. It is evidence that the public love their large pet cats. And the Maine Coon is the largest but not all of them are as magnificent as Lotus. She is special. And being female (if I am correct on gender) makes her more special. Females are generally a bit smaller than males and yet she is as big as the biggest male. I have no idea where she lives. I really don't. It is somewhere where they experience cold and snowy
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The extreme Maine Coon face

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This is an example of extreme breeding. This is a Maine Coon but this cat is an extreme and rare example of this breed. This is not the way they look normally. This face is almost like an aggressive robot with the piercing eyes and the huge muzzle.  Or like a lion's head. The head looks enormous and very heavy. It looks unreal. But it also looks very impressive.  And purchasers like impressive-looking domestic cats. But this not the face of a Maine Coon that wins cat show competitions as it does not fit the breed standard as accurately as the more moderate winners (see below).  In fact, the CFA standard is clear in that the cat should have a balanced appearance although this cat was not bred under the CFA breed standard as I understand it (see below).  Click here for more on the kind of MC which wins at shows . Maine Coon selectively breed to have an extreme face. Image in the public domain. And the Maine Coon is meant to be a large cat, the largest domestic cat breed and there
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Eerie picture of a Maine Coon sitting like a human on a chest of drawers

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This is a slightly scary picture according to those who've seen it. One social media user said it was the devil and "If I walked into a room and saw that, I would assume some shit is about to go down". There is a ghostly stillness and sinister feeling about the image. 'Eerie' is a better description. This attractive cat appears to be completely at ease and comfortable sitting on top of a chest of bedroom drawers. The lighting from below (deliberate?) enhances the eerie effect. It seems possible that this is a photo-edited image but if so, it has been done with great skill. However, I don't think this is Photoshopped. Rethink: to be honest, the more I look at the picture, the more I feel that this is a photo-edited image. It is just too unnatural to be real. Although some domestic cats get themselves into some very strange positions. Maine Coon calmly sitting just like a human on a chest of drawers. Picture source unclear. Image deemed to be in the public d
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No part of a Maine Coon cat should be exaggerated

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It is interesting to read that the premier cat association, the CFA (Cat Fanciers' Association) - the cat association which really dictates (with TICA) how Maine Coons should look - makes it clear that no part of the cat should be exaggerated, and the cat should be "well-proportioned and balanced".  In other words, any form of extreme appearance such as a particularly heavy muzzle or particularly large ears with extra-long lynx tips are not going to be seen as advantageous in terms of winning cat shows or in terms of having an ideal appearance. As soon as I read that no part of a Maine Coon should be exaggerated, I immediately thought of the extremely large, extreme-bred Maine Coon cats that often come from Russia. These cats have very heavy muzzles.  Lion-faced Maine Coon with exaggerated features. Image in public domain now. In fact, their heads look like the heads of lions. I get the impression that breeders have selectively bred their cats over years to look like male
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Black smoke Maine Coon Richie with a black face and diamond eyes

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Black smoke Maine Coon Richie with a black face and diamond eyes. Photo: Instagram. OMG, this is a Maine Coon with an amazing face. His full name is "Richie du Mont d’Even". I think he has a black smoke coat which has created this black face with the assistance of other genes (polygenetic influence?) and ears with piercing, diamond eyes. This is a very special cat. Richie looked very interesting but relatively plain as a kitten. Image: Instagram. His paws are balls of fluff. He has a mane that goes over his head like a halo. He's angelic and other-worldly. The lynx tips on the end of his ears are smoky grey which makes them stand out. They are a bit like the opposite to the black lynx tips of the wild caracal.  He lives in France with his human: Adriana Piraino. He was born on 7th November 2020. He is still very young. They say Maine Coons reach adulthood at around the age of 4. He is going to be enormous as well. Richie with Adriana. Photo: Instagram Richie was bred b
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Parisian Maine Coon 'crème et blanc'

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PARIS: This is a handsome Parisian Maine Coon described by his human caretaker as: "My little lynx Jiyuu of Roswell Maine Coon crème et blanc 19 mois mâle". The translation is: his name is Jiyuu of Roswell. His coat is cream and white. He is 19 months old. Oh, and his is damned handsome. The photo is by his guardian: Lunatique- girl . Cream and white Maine Coon living in Paris, France. Photo: Lunatique Girl. It is a really nice Maine Coon photo of a really nice Maine Coon with an interesting coat colour. I think the main colour is more milk chocolate, cappuccino or fawn! Anyway, super-looking cat. Is he a cream tabby? I think so.
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Maine Coon size versus dog size?

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People want to know how the size of the Maine Coon compares to the size of a dog. You probably realise that it is impossible to answer this question because dog size varies enormously. This is due to selective breeding over about 20 years or more. And, it has to be said, the size of the Maine Coon also varies considerably.  A Beagle versus a large Maine Coon comparing size. Image: MikeB based on images in the public domain. Here is another image comparing a Beagle and a standard Maine Coon from a YouTube video: Standard Maine Coon versus a Beagle comparing size. Screenshot. Small-to-medium-sized dog compared to a Maine Coon size. Image in public domain. This looks like a small Maine Coon. And here is a Golden Retriever and Maine Coon playing. This dog breed is quite large: People get the impression that all Maine Coons are always huge but they are not. Maine Coons can be a little larger than standard domestic cats (small female for instance) but in general they are considerably larg
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Comparison of a black smoke Maine Coon at 6 weeks and 6-years-of-age

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This is a cross-post as the image is so damned good. It is amazing because the cat is amazing. To put the same cat at different stages of their life in the same photograph is a nice idea especially with this Maine Coon (MC) who has an amazingly heavy face. It is so mightily masculine to be almost unbelievable. He has a priceless expression on his face too. Very serious compared to the innocence of his face when he was 6 weeks old. He looks a bit coy when 6 weeks old and a slightly grumpy middle-aged man when 6 years old. Comparison of a black smoke Maine Coon at 6-weeks and 6-years-of-age. Image in pubic domain. No doubt he is huge too. You get a clear sense of that in the image. There is a serious and less impressive side to this image. It's the backstory that people don't really want to read about and discuss or in fact do anything about: heart ( HCM ) and joint disease. The bigger and heavier the MCs are the more predisposed to heart disease they are. Here is the posts on
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5 Maine Coon transformations from kitten to adult (video)

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Maine Coon kitten and his adult self. Photo: Robert Silka. This is a series of photographs by the very famous Maine Coon photographer: robert_sijka. I think he presents his photographs too dark as there is not enough information in the photographs for my liking but he takes great photographs of great Maine Coon cats. In this series he photographs a kitten and their adult version. Each individual cat is a wonderful example of the Maine Coon breed. I can count five examples. In my experience, these Google Blogger videos only work if you click the centre play button and then, immediately afterwards, the play button bottom-left! It sounds bad but the short video is worth watching.
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2 top Russian Maine Coon cat breeders which ship internationally

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I am writing this from the West; specifically, near London, UK. There will be quite a few people living in the West who'd like to adopt a Maine Coon cat and they would like to adopt one from a Russian breeder because they do have a certain style.  I sense, although I don't have hard evidence to support this feeling, that the top Russian breeders of Maine Coon cats might be superior to breeders from other countries.  I am putting aside Putin's invasion of Ukraine when writing this article. Some people might object to dealing in anyway with a Russian business on account of that barbaric and illegal invasion. We should remember that Russia has quite a strong cat fancy. They like their cats and they love their purebred cats particularly the Maine Coon. It is in fact a cat breed which is quite naturally suited to the Russian way of life and climate. There's lots of space in Russia with a relatively low population and therefore there are going to be houses with large grounds
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Dwarf Maine Coon cat?

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No, you won't get a dwarf Maine Coon cat. There is no formal cat breed which is a dwarf Maine Coon (MC) although there are about a dozen dwarf cat breeds which is strange because most people haven't heard of them. It would be a travesty of the distinguished Maine Coon cat breed to create a dwarf version. But is there is someone online discussing a Maine Coon x Munchkin mix. Well, I hardly read it because I can't see the point. Note : One study on Google Scholar reports on a Maine Coon kitten in Germany born with inherited dwarfism called metaphyseal chondrodysplasia. This is very rare as I understand it. This individual cat was a dwarf Maine Coon. The cat also suffered from rickets and other health issues. This was unplanned and unwanted. Fairly normal-sized Maine Coon. Photo: copyright Helmi Flick. Think about it. The MC is known to have a large and distinguished bearing. They are meant to be outstanding in that way. It is their raison d'etre. To cut them down to a s
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