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Why are Maine Coon cats so friendly?

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A person on social media asked: "Why are Maine Coon cats so friendly?" They asked that question with confidence. I can think of a few topics to discuss in response to the question. Socialisation Maine Coon cats are purebred cats. Purebred cats are bred by cat breeders. Cat breeders know that they have an obligation to make sure that their kittens for sale are fully socialised to humans. This means that they will be friendly towards humans from the get go. The breeder achieves this by making sure that the kittens that she has created in her breeding programme are underfoot in her home, meeting members of her family and even strangers. In this way the kittens become acclimatised to being around people. This means that when they meet their new owner, they get along with them and are not frightened of them. That's why Maine Coon cats are so friendly. It is down to the efforts of the cat breeder and socialisation. Unfriendly Maine Coon? Sometimes a Maine Coon cat might not be ...
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Do Maine Coons need a companion?

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Buster and Luna; sibling Maine Coons who get along great. When it happens it is perfect. They have each other to entertain themselves when their caregiver is out, provided they're not out for too long! Image is a screenshot from the video below. This strange question in the title is asked on the Maine Coon Central website. I'll tell you why I think it is strange. It is because all Maine Coon cats have a companion in their human caregiver! They automatically have a companion and domestic cats regard their human caregivers as felines or surrogate mothers.  Of course, Maine Coon cats need a companion because they need a caregiver as they are domestic cats. The question is superfluous. It is irrelevant UNLESS it is meant to be asking if a Maine Coon cat needs another Maine Coon cat or another domestic cat of any breed or non-purebred as a companion. That's a whole different kettle of fish which introduces some quite complicated problems. When Maine Coon siblings get along as se...
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Do Maine Coon cats get on with other cats?

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Maine Coons are just like any other domestic cat in terms of whether they get on with other cats. They are not a special case with extraordinary powers of friendliness and amicability. Yes, generally (subject to good socialisation as kittens) they have nice, laid-back characters but this does not override the domestic cat's instinctive behaviour to claim a home range and protect it from 'invaders'.   A person who knows the Maine Coon well, Gloria Stephens, a cat show judge and breeder, says that 'most are nothing but sweet'. Not the qualifying word 'most'. She says that her female is calm and collected 'controlling the house with a mere glance of the eye'. A nice character but still a classic domestic cat in overall character. Omar is a good friend to a standard moggie - a dark tortie. Image: Instagram. A new cat to a home would be nearly always be regarded as an invader. The reaction depends on the cat. It might be mild or there may be aggression. T...
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Why are Maine Coons so friendly? Are they 'so' friendly?

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People ask Google why the Maine Coon cat is so friendly. Is it really true that they are extra friendly? Clearly internet authors are saying that they are. My go-to reference book on the personality of the Maine Coon is one written by a former cat breeder and show judge, Gloria Stephens.  She lives with Maine Coon cats. I don't think that you could get a better reference than her. I prefer book references to the internet because on the latter authors tend to race off copies of what they've seen without really questioning it. Are Maine Coons as friendly as some people claim? Image by MikeB at PoC. Gloria Stephens Gloria Stephens tells me that they are 'people orientated' which implies that they are friendly but 'they are not over-dependent'. They don't constantly demand attention "preferring to hang out with their owners". And she says that they don't necessarily want to be held but they like to be near the person they love. And they form close ...
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Video of Maine Coon 'massaging' (kneading) his best buddy, a Staffy

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It looks like the Maine Coon is a full-time indoor cat living in an apartment in Gdańsk, Poland. The video has attracted the attention of news media which is why it has been seen well over a million times, which makes it the best video for this TikTok user: maine_staffy.  The user's handle reflects the fact that the dog is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. The cat looks like a genuine Maine Coon; a grey tabby with a bit of white and what looks like dilute markings. A beautiful and cute cat for kneading his best buddy, the Staffy. I'll present the video twice (1) once as an embedded video from TikTok which may stop working and (2) an uploaded version which won't disappear, but the quality is poorer. @maine_staffy #massage #staffordshire #staffy #floyd #mainecoon #maine #cat #doglove #dog #funny #kocurek #pies #kot #kotek #zabawa ♬ оригинальный звук - 🐱 Otis&Floyd 🐶 We know that they are best buddies because when a cat kneads another animal species in...
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Location: Gdańsk, Poland
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Two gentle Maine Coons accept puppy into their home day one

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This is a warming video. A family have a couple of gorgeous Maine Coons and they decided to adopt a fluffy puppy (8 weeks old Maltipoo puppy, Leyla). The take pretty bold but sensible steps to introduce the puppy to the resident Maine Coons. Within a day there is acceptance and no hissing or objections it seems from the Maine Coons. A great result in football parlance. RELATED :  Tip on introducing a new cat to a resident cat . I like the way they used a large indoor cage for the puppy to allow the cats to get used to the smells and presence of their new canine friend. I don't think you can ever be sure how resident cats will get along with a newcomer, cat or dog, until it happens. The outcome must be dependent of two possibilities (1) the cats are already socialised to dogs, so probably no problem or (2) the character of the cats is great for accepting a new dog. They have placid personalities which seems to the case in this instance. Mutual play is a great way to socialise a newc...
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Maine Coon - Pitbull love story (video)

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Here is a brilliant interspecies friendship. More than that, actually. Love actually. I might be anthropomorphising these love birds but I don't think so. The Maine Coon is Ernest and the Pitbull is Hemingway. Neat. The Maine Coon is polydactyl which may have inspired the names of these companion animals because 'Hemingway cats' are known to be polydactyl. In case you are unsure what that means, it means that he has more than the usual number of toes.  If you like interspecies relationships: try this one:  Alsatian and crow are best mates ! Maine Coon, Ernest, and Pitbull, Hemingway together. Screenshot. Maine Coons are famous for this condition but it was bred out of them by American breeders. It is a shame as polydactylism is part of the Maine Coon heritage. Nowadays a polydactyl Maine Coon would be disqualified in a CFA organised cat show competition . That's how far from the history of the breed the cat associations have come. They consider polydactylism a crude def...
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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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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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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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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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A mightily beautiful orange Maine Coon

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Orange cats seem to feature in films more than other types of domestic cat . Is it because they have good, balanced characters? I am discussing the possibility of a link between coat type and color and character. A big call. A longshot. But possible. I discussed it in another post - click here if it interests you .  So, we love orange cats. They are undoubtedly one of the more popular cat coat types. And that is one reason why this Maine Coon is so damned attractive. What a combination: the size and presence of the Maine Coon, the world's largest domestic cat breed , and the orange tabby coat ( the friendliest cats? ) A mightily beautiful orange Maine Coon. Photo: Pinterest. I think this sort of domestic cat is the most desirable. You would be hard pressed to adopt a better cat but the best ones to adopt are the unadoptable, elderly, black rescue cats languishing in a shelter somewhere . A bit about the orange cat Cat breeders tend to refer to orange as red. The general public r...
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Today's Maine Coons are much larger and longer than the original

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There was a time, during the early years when the Maine Coon's popularity was in decline that the cat fanciers struggled with writing what they believed to be the correct breed standard. There was competition between what Richard H Gebhardt describes as a "progressive standard" or one which was designed to "describe and preserve an existing cat" i.e. fix the appearance. At this time this cat breed was much more a standard looking cat which is probably why it failed to catch the imagination of the cat loving public of America. Maine Coon. Photo in public domain. A progressive standard is one which allows breeders to constantly "refine" the appearance as they might describe it. But this can lead to extreme breeding and extreme appearances such as is evident in the Persian and Siamese. There was a time, then, went Richard H Gebhardt says that cat fanciers asked, "is the Maine Coon cat simply the long-haired variety of the domestic, or American, sh...
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