Can Maine Coons be 'guard cats'?

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This might sound a little frivolous, perhaps even stupid please hear me out. We know about guard dogs. In developing countries, a lot of people keep dogs as guard dogs. It may be the main reason why they have a dog. 

Guard dogs are also popular in developed countries. Dogs are favoured over cats in this role because they (1) are servants of their master, the pack leader and alpha dog, the human caregiver and (2) they are generally larger and stronger than domestic cats. The dog has an instinct to bark at the door when a stranger arrives as they presume it to be a hostile invader of their pack. 

Subject to a few extra conditions, I can see both points 1 and 2 being overturned by the Maine Coon! 

Warning: Guard Cat
Warning: Guard Cat. Image: MikeB

We all know that the domestic cat, including the Maine Coon is not a pack animal. They won't defend the group of which they are a member.

However, regarding the Maine Coon character I can defer to my favorite reference, Gloria Stephens (Legacy of the Cat). She says that some cats of this breed 'develop such a strong attachment to their female owners that they be recalcitrant when their owner is away'. That's the first point to make.

The Maine Coon cat can form a very close attachment to their caregiver which is unusually strong. And we know that mother cats are extremely brave in defending their kittens. Sometimes domestic cats relate to their human caregiver or family member as one of their kittens. It is a reversal of roles as usually the human is a surrogate mother to their domestic cat.


We've seen this in the famous video on YouTube of a domestic cat attacking a dog who was attacking a child near his home (see below). And we often see mother cats fighting dogs when they attack their offspring. There are many examples of the video shown below. Domestic cats often defend kids by the way.  I have even seen a domestic cat prevent a toddler from falling down the stairs and another stopping a child falling out of a window.

They often relate to kids as their kittens if the cat has deeply integrated into human family life.


That's the strength of their mothering instinct. That's the second point in my argument that a Maine Coon might be a guard cat.

Lastly, we have all seen the 20 to 25 pound Maine Coons on the internet. They are enormous. Certainly, the size of a medium-sized dog. The pic below illustrates this. It is by MikeB.


If the following conditions applied a Maine Coon could be a guard cat:
  1. They are female
  2. They are bonded to their owner or owner's children who they regarded as a kitten
  3. They were 20-25 pounds in size (this part is not so important - just a factor in making the cat more imposing and therefore more effective as a guard cat.
The last point is this: normally domestic cats shy away from strangers entering the home. But if a large Maine Coon is in a protective mode, it is not beyond the bounds on one's imagination to foresee the possibility that a Maine Coon could guard their owner or owner's child against an intruding burglar.

And don't forget that the Maine Coon, like all domestic cats has formidable weapons. The only crunch point is would she attack a stranger to defend her 'family'? It is possible.

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