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American Shag (cat)

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What is the American Shag ?! No, it is not describing a passionate encounter between two Americans. I think that's why the name was dropped 😃. You might be able to guess that it is an alternative name for the Maine Coon . The Maine Coon cat actually has a lot of different names in its history such as the: American Coon Cat Maine Trick Cat American Longhair American Forest Cat American Snughead It appears that in the early days, somewhere between the late 1800s and the early 1900s, the cat fancy struggled a bit with how to name this cat and they eventually settled on the "Maine Coon", which surprises me greatly because it is a horrible name (by today's standard at least).  Shaggy coat of the Maine Coon inspired the American Shag name. Image in public domain. Well, the first bit of the name is good but the second bit is ridiculous and the name as a whole now has become objectionable because of the second part, which has racist connotations. Anyway, the second part mig...

"Maine cat"

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The name "Maine cat" was an early version of today's 'Maine Coon cat'. It was used by Frances Simpson in 1902 in her book, " Cats and All about Them ". It is perhaps the earliest fully fledged book on the domestic cat and the breeds. She also edited "The Book of the Cat" which I believe was published in 1903. In this book she commissioned and collated the writing of breeders, naturalists and veterinarians. The quote below comes from the former I believe. "From my earliest recollection I have had from one to several long-haired cats of that variety often called Maine cats . As to how and when they came, I would say, like Topsy, they just “growed,” for their advent reaches far back beyond the memory of the oldest inhabitant." Personally, I would have to say that the earlier version of the name is much better than the later version particularly now in a woke world where any mention of the word "coon" is uncomfortable. For the l...

Maine Coon cat names that connect with the state of Maine

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These are my thoughts on Maine Coon cat names. The Maine Coon (MC) is an American cat. It developed, it is believed, as a cat breed over 400 years in Maine before it became formally recognised as a breed in 1950s. It was informally recognized in the 1860s being a farm cat and shown at farm livestock shows. Classy MC needing a classy name. Pic in the public domain. This is a gentle cat with a shaggy coat. The voice is quiet. The MC is independent but loyal and friendly. An all-American boy or girl in human terms. I guess the name should be built around this history and character. Boys are goofy and girls are more dignified. See personality . I'd start with names of well-known people from Maine that fit the character.: Males Howie - nice name for a Maine Coon boy. After Howie Carr a journalist, born in Portland, Maine. Nelson - named after the governor Nelson Dingley Jr. (lived 1832-1899). Joey - named after Joey Gamache. World Boxing Association Lightweight Champ...

Name "Maine Coon" needs to be changed because of 'woke' culture

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It is unlikely to happen but there would seem to be a reasonable argument to change the name of this very popular cat breed; the Maine Coon . The problem is this: the second word is a highly derogatory and insulting word describing people of colour. It is a word that you can never use as an insult or almost all other contexts and rightly so. And, in the woke era, where there is a much greater sensitivity towards the inappropriate use of language and attitudes, the word "Coon" has, arguably, become out of place in present society. This argument is supported by TikTok. The administrators of that massive website think that "Maine Coon" is a term or phrase which describes inappropriate human behaviour. It's true. Go to the TikTok website and search for "Maine Coon". Their custom search engine does not find anything. They put up a warning instead to say that the search is inappropriate . See the screenshot above. A sign of the times. RELATED:  Maine Coon...

How Maine Coons got their name

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The title is bold and confident. I am not that confident about this! But I think I know why Maine Coons have their strange name. Of all the cat breed names the Maine Coon is perhaps the strangest. The first half of it makes sense because this all-American cat hails, predominantly, from the state of Maine. That's fine but what about the 'Coon' part of the name? That's initially baffling. How Maine Coons got their name. These early 'coon cats' looked like standard large domestic cats. No selectively bred Maine Coon features per the breed standard. Just regular cats. Image in the public domain and I am thankful to Sarah Hartwell's website messybeast.com. They used to call the early Maine Coons 'coon cats' in lower case, no capitalization. The Lowell Sun (a local newspaper, I presume) on November 25, 1893 reported on 'coon cats'. Here is the report, verbatim: "A correspondent of Science tells of seeing in a private house in Chicago recent...

Why are Maine Coons called that?

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Why is this cat breed called "Maine Coon"? That's the question. There are two possible answers. There are various hypotheses for the origins of this breed. One of them is that a certain Captain Coon, an English sea captain (ostensibly a Chinese bloke), frequented the shores of Maine in his trading seagoing vessel. And, he loved cats!  A Maine Coon bred in The Netherlands. Photo by Dani. He had his little feline army on board. Whenever he went ashore some of his cats managed to follow him where they fraternised with the local strays and domestics. The offspring founded the long-haired cat population of North America and the Maine Coon cat. In that story you have both elements of the cat's name namely, "Maine", a reference to the state of Maine on the east coast of America and "Coon" a reference to Captain Coon who brought the cats to America in the first place. There is another far-fetched possibility in that at one stage some people thought that...

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