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Showing posts with the label theft

The peculiar case of the theft of two adorable Maine Coons kittens from a locked barn

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NEWS AND COMMENT: The story comes from Vernon, California, USA. Brent Comeau said, "My last two Maine Coon kittens were stolen out of my barn between the hours of 8 PM August 30 and 6 AM August 31" (2020). He is convinced that the person came to steal his kittens because they knew exactly where to go and how to avoid the security cameras. The thief used bolt cutters to break into the barn. He added that the two kittens were days away from being purchased and they were the last two kittens of two litters of kittens. One is male and the other is female. Ostensibly 2 Maine Coon kittens stolen from a barn but they don't look like Maine Coon kittens! Image: Supplied. He is asking anyone with information to call him and he provides his phone number online. He is offering a $1000 reward for the kittens' safe return. I've not published the phone number as this story is about 24 months old. He received a tipoff about the possibility of the two kittens being offered for sal...
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Location: Vernon, CA, USA
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Accidental 'cat-napping' goes viral (and the cackle)

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I'm sorry but this is not about Maine Coon cats because I have temporarily run out of things to say about that beautiful cat breed 😎. This is about something which is very human and it is the failure to recognise your own cat. A woman in Canada thought that she had lost her cat, George, and believed that she had spotted him on the road as she drove up to her house.  She grabbed the cat and placed him inside her car. When she got home her cat was there and realised that she had "stolen" someone else's cat. People on TikTok told her to put him back where she had bound him. Which she obligingly did. Although both the cat that she 'stole' and her cat are tabby cats. She believes that the other cat is a community cat but judging by the appearance it looks as though he or she isn't and is someone's pet.  In typical TikTok fashion a lot of people liked the video but I don't think it is worth that much in terms of adulation. Perhaps it was the woman's...
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Location: Canada
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Maine Coon, Max, stolen by Russian troops in Bucha, Ukraine during the war

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NEWS AND COMMENT-UKRAINE: I am afraid that the reporting of this story is sadly disjointed and unclear. I really can't make sense of it except for parts of it. I will do my best to retell it.  Max, a Maine Coon, was stolen by the Russians when they departed Bucha, Ukraine. Photo: Twitter. Max is an eight-year-old ginger tabby Maine Coon. He was living in Bucha with his owners: Olena, her husband and their 18-month-old son. They lived about 3 km from Hostomel Airport. You may remember that the Russians tried to capture the airport at the end of February. There was bombing and it affected Olena and her husband. Це кіт Макс із Бучі. Клята русня вкрала його, але загубила, коли тікала, десь під Гомелем. Через місяць власниці, яка вже на той час перебувала із дитиною в Чехії, зателефонували з Білорусі, бо в кота у кулончику містилася вся інформація. Завдяки небайдужості кіт вже із власницею pic.twitter.com/1wczEJdvqq — Яблунька (@Yablonyka) May 15, 2022 Note : This is an embedded tweet....
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Location: Bucha, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, 08292
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Maine Coon among the most commonly stolen cats in Britain

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The Maine Coon is among the cat breeds most commonly stolen in Britain (Daily Express). The others are: Bengal, Siamese and of course the non-purebred moggy.  Magical Maine Coon queens of Norway. Moody...looking and feeling like snowy Norway. Photo:  Instagram. Maine Coon allowed outside unsupervised. Possibility of theft? Perhaps not. Increase in thefts In Britain, in 2021, there has been a 12.3% rise in cat thefts since the beginning of the year to April. There has been a threefold increase in the past five years. The Mail Online reports that up to 360,000 cats have been stolen in a year in the UK! That is a staggering figure. Although the Maine Coon is one of the favourites to be stolen, of the purebred cats, the Bengal is top of the list for thieves. The reason might be because the Bengal cat stands out more than the Maine Coon and therefore is more of a target. Over the past two years, there has been a 40% increase in thefts of cats in the UK. Less than 20% o...
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Location: United Kingdom
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Can you let Maine Coons outside?

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There is no absolute barrier to it but is it a good idea to let your Maine Coon go outside and wander around freely? No, it's not. I think it's too dangerous because they look so attractive and, depending upon where you live, there is a possibility that your cat would be stolen. Some thieves steal purebred cats to breed from them and make money by selling the kittens. The Covid-19 pandemic has made things worse with a spate of thefts of dogs primarily but also including cats because companion animals have become more popular during these extended lockdowns leaving people with the time to spend with their companion animals and for single people to have some company. Image by  barnabashohl  from  Pixabay So, letting your Maine Coon go outside like a moggy may be too risky. Some people do it and you hear stories of them getting lost or being injured just like any other cat but I don't like to hear about it. Although, Maine Coons in an absolute sense have no more rights th...
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Ginger tabby Maine Coon with huge plumed tail outside on leash

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This is a picture of a very impressive Maine Coon cat with a ginger tabby coat, a huge, plumed tail who is enjoying the outside on a leash. It is nice to see such a handsome cat on a leash outside the home. It is the only way such a cat could safely enjoy the outside so this photograph ticks all the boxes. This appears to be a backyard (garden). Ginger tabby Maine Coon with huge plumed tail outside on leash. Photo: Twitter. The most noticeable feature is of, course, the tail and Maine Coons are meant to have tails just like this one: long fur, flowing or in the language of cat breeders "plumed". A tail like this is part of the breed standard and all good cat breeders will aspire to this sort of appearance. It is one of the special features of this breed as is the square muzzle and the large ears which are lynx tipped. The fur should be shaggy (TICA) and there should be lots of tufts of hair sticking out between the toes! I don't know how many try to take their cat outs...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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Black smoke Maine Coon Richie with a black face and diamond eyes

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Black smoke Maine Coon Richie with a black face and diamond eyes. Photo: Instagram. OMG, this is a Maine Coon with an amazing face. His full name is "Richie du Mont d’Even". I think he has a black smoke coat which has created this black face with the assistance of other genes (polygenetic influence?) and ears with piercing, diamond eyes. This is a very special cat. Richie looked very interesting but relatively plain as a kitten. Image: Instagram. His paws are balls of fluff. He has a mane that goes over his head like a halo. He's angelic and other-worldly. The lynx tips on the end of his ears are smoky grey which makes them stand out. They are a bit like the opposite to the black lynx tips of the wild caracal.  He lives in France with his human: Adriana Piraino. He was born on 7th November 2020. He is still very young. They say Maine Coons reach adulthood at around the age of 4. He is going to be enormous as well. Richie with Adriana. Photo: Instagram Richie was bred b...
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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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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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