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The Lion Cut Debate: Maine Coons in Summer Heat

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In the midst of a blisteringly hot summer' day in the 30s Celsius and with glamorous Maine Coons being kept indoors for their safety there is an argument for giving this shaggy beauty a lion cut to provide some respite from the heat. What are the pros and cons? When the UK bakes under a heat dome, even the famously rugged Maine Coon can look uncomfortable. Their dense double coat evolved for Maine’s snowy winters, not for British heatwaves. That’s where the lion cut — shaving the body while leaving the mane, tail tuft, and sometimes boots — enters the conversation. 🟢 Positives of the Lion Cut Heat relief : Removing the heavy undercoat helps the cat regulate temperature and avoid overheating, especially in homes without air conditioning. Reduced matting : Long fur tangles easily in summer humidity; clipping prevents painful mats and skin irritation. Easier grooming : Owners spend less time brushing and detangling, and cats often appreciate the lighter feel. Cleaner coat : Less fu...
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In the era of 'global boiling' a lion cut for a Maine Coon is on the cards

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Pretty Maine Coon with lion cut. Image in the public domain. Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General said this about global warming: "The only surprise is the speed of the change. Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning. The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived." Relative to America, air conditioning is quite unusual in most of Europe. The Washington Post recently reported that only 20% of European homes have air conditioning, and it's rare to find it in schools or offices. I've argued that in some American states such as Texas it would be unfair to have a Maine Coon as it'd be too hot . There are many Maine Coon cats in Europe. And further, July is "virtually certain" to be the hottest month on record globally by a significant margin, the United Nations and a European science agency have said. July's first 23 days averaged a record 16.95°C globally. You might have read about the wil...
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Veterinarian seems to have used garden shears to give this cat a lion cut!

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A few days ago, I wrote about the possibility and reasons for giving a Maine Coon cat a lion cut which is okay if done by a competent vet and not under general anesthetic .  The cat in the picture is not a Maine Coon (as far as I can tell) but they did receive a lion cut from a veterinarian's clinic and it looks as if they used garden shears because it is an unmitigated disaster. It is horrendous. However, I think it would be fair to state that veterinarians are not necessarily professional cat groomers and most of the time when they provide a lion cut, they are doing it for medical and health reasons.  It is not meant to be aesthetically pleasing. Despite that, it would certainly help if it was aesthetically pleasing as well as medically beneficial! Veterinarian seems to have used garden shears to give this cat a lion cut! Image: u/JuanPabloVassermiler The picture comes from social media and a veterinarian helpfully provided their comment about the picture. They said the foll...
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Do Maine Coons enjoy cold weather?

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In a peculiar way the question in the title is not bad because it begs further questions. I can think of a couple: As Maine Coons are full-time indoor cats it is fair to ask if their thick, shaggy, double coat is unsuited to their indoor lifestyle which must be the way in order to protect them. And, is it okay to give a Maine Coon a lion cut to allow them some relief from the muggy indoors if that is what it is like? Are lion cuts safe and reasonable to give to domestic cats? But first things first, the question in the title needs to be answered. The famous Richie must feel the heat in warm weather. Maine Coon are built for colder climates. Thank God for air-conditioning! Image: Instagram. Do Maine Coons enjoy cold weather? If a Maine Coon feels a little overheated inside the home because the central heating has been turned up, yes, he or she may enjoy sitting in the catio which has one side open to the elements with only a screen to protect her from the icy wind in winter. By the way,...
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Is it a good idea to give my Maine Coon cat a lion cut?

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Is it sensible to shave a Maine Coon cat in the summer months when it's hot? Often when cat owners do this, they give their cat a lion cat. Original 'Maine cats' It is not an easy question to answer but this is mine. The Maine Coon cat (MC) is a medium-longhaired cat with a shaggy coat. It is a coat designed for living in cold conditions as did the original "Maine cats" as they were called when they were barn cats in the mid-19th century. Maine Coon with lion cut. Image in the public domain. At that time their coat served a purpose. To keep them warm 😃. I didn't need to state that, did I? But nowadays Maine Coon cats are companions living mainly inside the home. Sometimes they are exclusively confined to the home. I expect that 90% of homes in America are kept at a reasonable temperature both in winter and summer (wrong? Please tell me). The only reason why MCs have medium-longhair is because that is the way they been bred and it is for appearance . RELATED: ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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Difference between Maine Coon and domestic long hair

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The difference between a Maine Coon cat and a domestic longhaired cat comes down to the fact that the former has been artificially bred (selective breeding) whereas the latter has usually procreated according to natural selection. Natural selection is random breeding and therefore the domestic longhair is a random-bred cat whereas, selective breeding produces a purebred, pedigree cat registered with a cat association.  Difference between Maine Coon and domestic long hair. Infographic by MikeB. And because each individual Maine Coon cat is registered with a cat association, if they are in genuine Maine Coon, their appearance should comply with the association's breed standard . The breed standard tells breeders what their Maine Coon cats should look like in order that they can win cat show competitions if they want to enter their cat into these competitions. And so, as the appearance of Maine Coon cats is moulded to the guidance of a breed standard (see a section below from the...
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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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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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