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Showing posts with the label brown tabby

Maine Coon Barnaby and Lily's great adventure together

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This is the second chapter of a Maine Coon story. Please click this link to see the first . The following spring, the grey Seattle rains finally broke, yielding to a brilliant blue sky and the sharp scent of damp earth. Barnaby sat on the back porch, his ears twitching as he watched a robin hop through the tall grass. He was an indoor cat by rule, but his wild ancestry called to him through the screen door. Lily noticed his longing. That afternoon, she surprised him with a sturdy neon-green walking harness and a matching leash. Fitting a twenty-pound Maine Coon into a harness was like trying to dress a hairy boulder. Barnaby did not struggle; he simply went entirely limp, turning into a giant puddle of silver fluff. Lily giggled, adjusting the straps around his thick chest. "Okay, buddy," she whispered, opening the screen door. "Let's explore." Into the Wild The moment his giant paws touched the real grass, Barnaby transformed. He dropped low to the ground, his ...
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How to tell a Maine Coon from a tabby!?

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The question is the title to an article on the Maine Coon Central website. The No. 1 Maine Coon cat website, they claim. The question is also the title to this article. The problem is that the question doesn't make sense! 😁 That's because "Maine Coon" is the name of a cat breed while "tabby" is the name of a coat type and pattern. How to tell a Maine Coon from a tabby!? The question is daft; meaningless. Image: MikeB Many Maine Coon cats have tabby coats. So the question in the title is not comparing apples with apples or pears with pears. It's comparing two entirely different things which actually overlap in any case. The question shouldn't be asked. Perhaps the question is meant to ask this question: what's the difference between a tabby Maine Coon cat and a tabby non-purebred cat? The answer that question is that the Maine Coon cat is a very distinct and distinguished looking cat very often quite different to a medium-longhaired non-purebred...
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Adorable Maine Coon snarl with crinkled nose

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 Don't get the wrong impression that Maine Coons snarl a lot. They don't. They are pretty laid-back cats. This picture caught my eye as the large, square muzzle of the Maine Coon makes a domestic cat snarl look particularly impressive. This brown tabby Maine Coon has a very strong, masculine face. His crinkled nose is the icing on the cat for a feline facial expression.  The owner says this about the picture: "My Maine Coon buddy Quentin. He does the best don't-mess-with-me snarl. He even crinkles his nose." It is harder to read the emotions of domestic cats through their facial expressions than it is for dogs . The cat is known to be inscrutable but not so in this instance. Adorable Maine Coon snarl with crinkled nose. Image: Twitter/X The relatively inscrutable face of the domestic cat compared to the domestic dog is all to do with the fact that the cat is solitary and therefore has less of a need to communicate with other cats compared to dogs which are pack an...
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Difference between Maine Coon and tabby

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A comparison between Maine Coon cats and tabby cat coats is unhelpful as they are different things entirely. The Maine Coon is a purebred, pedigree cat and the word 'tabby' refers to the tabby coat. The comparison is made all the more unsatisfactory because the most common coat type for the Maine Coon is the blotched (classic) brown tabby and the brown tabby-and-white. In this instance 'Maine Coon' and 'tabby' are one and the same thing in one way. Ginger tabby Maine Coon. Image believed to be in the public domain. This is a young Maine Coon. Ginger tabbies are normally referred to as 'red tabbies' in the cat fancy. Some people also search for an answer to the following question: 'How can you tell if a tabby is a Maine Coon?' The question implies that the 'tabby' is a specific cat breed and it is not. It is a coat type as mentioned. You can see the absurdity of the question when there are many Maine Coon tabby cats.  It is a problem which...
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Do all Maine Coons have an "M" on their forehead?

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The answer to the question in the title is, no , because some Maine Coons have an "M" on their forehead but not all Maine Coons. This is because not all Maine Coons are cats with a tabby coat. Although the Maine Coon perhaps looks its best with a tabby coat, the cat associations allow a wide range of coat colours and patterns under their breed standards. Tabby Maine Coon with the classic M Mark on the forehead. This varies tremendously in this design so don't expect a perfect M! Photo: Helmi Flick. The question in the title almost presupposes that all Maine Coon cats are tabby cats, which, as mentioned, is untrue. A lot of people prefer the Maine Coon with a tabby coat because this is a rugged, barn cat in terms of its history. So you don't want to make the cat look too pretty.  That is the theory. This is meant to be a solid, substantial and now refined purebred cat but the history of this cat goes back about 400 years to the barn cats of the state of Maine in t...
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Kesha lives with two Maine Coons and a Siamese cat (and Brad)

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Kesha is an American singer and songwriter. Her full name is Kesha Rose Sebert. She has the usual social media websites. She has a very good photographer who might be her partner, Brad, or somebody else because her Instagram pages are littered with really excellent photographs of a wide range of style-types.  Kesha lives with two Maine Coons and a Siamese cat. I believe that the Siamese cat Mr Peeps has been presented twice in the montage above. Wrong? Please tell me in a comment. Montage: Kesha Twitter feed. She is clearly a cat-lover because on her Twitter feed there is a photograph celebrating Pet Appreciation Day (2018) of her three cats, two of which are Maine Coons. Their names are Charlie and Queso. She also lives with a Siamese, 'Sir Mr Peeps'. It is said that she rescued Sir Mr Peeps from outside a strip joint in Russia. True? The photograph on this page shows four cats in a semicircle around Kesha and her partner Brad who are both holding the two Maine Coon cats. I...
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Tabby Maine Coon checks out something of interest in the backyard

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A glorious tabby Maine Coon checks out something of interest in the backyard. Maine Coons look their best in the tabby coat I believe, as do others. The reason why I like this photograph is because it shows us the length which has been turned into the height of the Maine Coon. It's an un-posed photograph, a snapshot, taken in the backyard; an ordinary photograph which is why the cat looks extraordinary.  ASSOCIATED:  Maine Coon plays with a standard moggy through a glass door  (showing the size difference). Tabby Maine Coon checks out something of interest in the backyard. Photo: Pinterest. The size of the Maine Coon becomes very apparent. But this is a big one. Not all Maine Coons are this big . I have said it before, the CFA does not state that Maine Coons should be big. They're meant to be substantial and have that robust appearance but the cat fancy does not tell breeders to create enormous Maine Coon cats. It has become a cultural habit.
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Super Maine Coon outside in the backyard on a fence post

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I don't have a lot of information about this handsome cat except that he is a Maine Coon which is pretty obvious anyway because this cat's appearance is very much in line with the breed standard. I am referring to the lynx tipped ears and plumed tail plus the square-muzzled face and the overall size which is very large - the largest of the domestic cat breeds. I think - a bit of a guess - that this cat lives in Germany. He lives with Silvia Schäftner and I believe that his name is Picasso. He has a collar. This points to the possibility that he is allowed to go outside unsupervised but I am guessing again. The place looks tidy and well organised which supports the view that this is Northern Europe and the owner's name is, I believe, German. Picasso is a blotched brown tabby, a very nice and appropriate coat type for a Maine Coon as it is a reflection of the coat of the early Maine Coons in America when they were non-purebred barn cats. Super Maine Coon outside in the backya...
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Location: Germany
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Heavyset chonky tabby Maine Coon made in Russia

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This Maine Coon is distinctively relatively cobby (stocky) compared to the usual slightly rangy Maine Coon we normally see. And the muzzle is very heavy and pronounced. The cat looks great though. It is just that the appearance is a little different to what I normally see and expect for the Maine Coon. But then the Russians do create Maine Coons that often look a bit different and which stand out.  This cat was breed and photographed by Людмила Вяткина living in Vladimir, Russian. The cat is a browny/rusty red tabby-and-white it seems to me. An amazing-looking cat. Tabby Maine Coon made and photographed in Russia by Людмила Вяткина. The CFA breed standard for the muzzle is 'visibly square, medium in length and blunt ended when viewed in profile. It may give the appearance of being a rectangle but should not appear to be tapering or pointed'.  The general body shape is described as "muscular, broad-chested. Size medium to large". The body should be long with all pa...
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Location: Vladimir, Vladimir Oblast, Russia
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Black silver blotched tabby Maine Coon kitten made in Russia

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This is a Maine Coon kitten described by his creator as: Silver boy Xavier, black silver blotched (ns22), 1,5 months. The breeder: Людмила Вяткина - ArmanPride Maine Coon cattery in Vladimir, Russia. I believe that 'ns22' is a reference to the WCF breed standard coat type. Silver blotched tabby Maine Coon kitten made in Russia. Either the lighting has produced this rusty coloured fur or the fur is indeed that colour. I think the latter assessment is correct which makes this big-footed, beautiful Maine Coon kitten so impressive. He's a tabby. You can tell quite clearly because of the 'M' mark on the forehead. I have said it before. The Russians breed the best Maine Coon cats. They are the most impressive. It's ironic bearing in mind the new Cold War between Russia and America and that the Maine Coon cat is their beloved American cat.
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Location: Vladimir, Vladimir Oblast, Russia
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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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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 b...
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Maine Coon Size - this is a huge one!

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  Enormous Maine Coon with a head bigger than the person holding him. Pic: in public domain. Maine Coon size is very important to both breeders of this cat and the public. I sometimes think that the public is more obsessed with Maine Coon size than the breeders are. The bigger the Maine Coon the better. There is a fascination about it and I confess that there is nothing much more impressive than a huge Maine Coon. They've been bred like this through selective breeding but please remember that they weren't always like this. The original Maine Coons were regular farm cats in the state of Maine in 19th-century and before. They were robust, rugged, medium-longhaired moggy cats but impressive nonetheless. Their impressiveness led to breeders deciding to breed them which in turn led to the breed being accepted by the cat associations and then to win cat shows and become perhaps one of the most famous breeds in the world. The breed standard for the Maine Coon as provided by e.g. Cat F...
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Average lifespan of Maine Coon cat

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How long do Maine Coon cats live for? What's the average lifespan? Do they live shorter lives than the average random-bred family cat? These are difficult questions to answer accurately. In fact, I don't think we can answer them accurately because nobody has been counting. Nobody has a database or carried out a full-blown survey and therefore you will read anecdotal evidence i.e. statements by breeders or people who think they know the answer and these answers get repeated on the Internet. I am not sure that they are accurate. Picture of a Maine Coon who looks like a middle-aged man. Photo: Pinterest. My research indicates that people believe that Maine Coon cats live between about 10 and 15 years old. Some may live longer than that and some may live shorter lives. One well-known Maine Coon, Rubble, lived for 31 years and was at one time the oldest domestic cat in the world. But there will always be exceptions and this article is about the mean or the average although these ...
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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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Are Maine Coons illegal in some countries, states or territories?

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One Maine Coon website asks if Maine Coons are legal? My initial response was that it is a bizarre question (second thoughts below), but I'll answer it in my way. I say that it is a bizarre question because the Maine Coon is an entirely domestic cat by which I mean NOT a wild cat hybrid and therefore there is no reason whatsoever to declare it illegal in any jurisdiction unless that there is some other fanciful reason to ban the cat (there might be - see below). Are Maine Coons illegal in some countries, states or territories? No, to the best of my knowledge. Image: MikeB I know of no jurisdiction anywhere in the world that bans Maine Coons which makes sense. Conversely a similar sized domestic cat, the F1-F2 Savannah, is illegal in many jurisdictions (states, territories and countries) because it is a wildcat hybrid. The cat has some wild cat DNA which some legislatures consider to be detrimental to human health and welfare and to the conservation of wildlife (if the cat escapes t...
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Tortoiseshell Maine Coon with split-face

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Maine Coon with "split face". Photo: Screenshot. This is a very impressive Maine Coon. As you can see she is a tortoiseshell and as you probably know almost all tortoiseshell and calico cats are female. There are a few male tortoiseshell cats (and this might be one of them). Their sex is caused by a genetic aberration because the genetics of tortoiseshell cats dictates that they are almost always female. About one in 3000 are male as I recall. Also, it is not that unusual to see this extreme pattern on the face which creates the appearance of a "split-face". This is not what is called a "chimera" but a normal variation of the tortoiseshell pattern. Sometimes you do see what some people call "two-faced" cats with this sort of face due to a sharply defined pattern down the middle of the face. But the genetics behind that is different to this normal tortoiseshell variation. This is a particularly extraordinary looking Maine Coon cat. Not all Maine C...
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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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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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Picture showing a Maine Coon as big as a child

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Another good example of the size of the bigger Maine Coons. Photo: Reddit.com This is a good photograph from the point of view of comparing size because it is from above and so we can see the full length of this almost totally black Maine Coon with white boots. The cat looks bigger than the child which is possible because I've seen Maine Coons which are positively enormous. I'm sure breeders of this cat go out of the way and bend over backwards to breed the biggest Maine Coon that they can. It's a challenge. They're not meant to necessarily be as big as this, as far as I know. That wasn't the initial objective under the breed standard. The standard does not say that Maine Coons must be enormous. In fact, the Cat Fanciers' Association breed standard, in the opening paragraph provides an overview of the cat and there is no mention that this cat should be very big. It is reproduced below (great cat though): "GENERAL: originally a working cat, the Maine Coon is...
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Should Maine Coons wear collars?

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Should Maine Coon cats wear collars? It's a question posed by the owner of the website Maine Coon Central and I think the question is not a great one to be perfectly frank but it does just about need to be addressed which is why I am writing this article. Maine Coon cat wearing a collar. Photo by Warren Photographic (modified by MikeB) and used with his express permission. You could ask the same question about any domestic cat that goes outside. Cat collars normally contain an identification tag. Cats that go outside might get lost. The ID tag can help them be reunited with their owner without recourse to having to scan for a microchip. The thing is though that it is probably exceptional for a Maine Coon cat to be allowed to go outside unsupervised. Quite rarely people take them outside on a harness and lead to allow them to explore the outside and be mentally stimulated. However, under these circumstances you don't need a collar with an ID tag for obvious reasons (unless they ...
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