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Would you freeze-dry your beloved Maine Coon cat on her passing?

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I have just written an article about the ethics of freeze-drying a companion animal on their passing. I decided, correctly or incorrectly, that it is a self-indulgent, human-centric process designed to bypass the grieving and mourning process which is far more natural, necessary and decent. I think freeze-drying pets is unethical and an example of speciesism. RELATED:  The ETHICS of pet freeze-drying . This woman did not have a Maine Coon but she describes the process. She fully believes in it and has not considered the ethics of it as far as I can tell. I am certain that almost a hundred percent of Maine Coon owners love their cat. When you buy a Maine Coon cat you invest your money in an animal companion. A lot of money. And maintenance is higher than normal. You need plenty of love to deliver it . On their passing ( which would be normally be a little earlier than the death of a non-purebred cat ) it's going to be very painful. I don't think there is a more emotionally pain...
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Indicators that a Maine Coon may be predisposed to HCM - hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (heart disease)

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Indicators that a Maine Coon may be predisposed to HCM - hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (heart disease). Image by MikeB Scientists looked at some possible indicators that a Maine Coon might be predisposed to developing HCM in their lives. Their conclusion was that the following signs may indicate a predisposition: low birth weight and catch up with rapid growth through good nutrition after poor nutrition as an embryo. obesity. neutered cat, which is linked to 2 above. heavier. long forelimb bones connecting the elbow and shoulder (humerus). Conclusions of the study Below are some extracts from the study. They are technical but they are here for completeness and they may interest some readers. 1. These data support the hypothesis that early growth and nutrition, larger body size and obesity may be environmental modifiers of genetic predisposition to HCM. Further studies are warranted to evaluate the effects of early nutrition and growth on the phenotypic expression of HCM 2. Low birth wei...
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Are Maine Coons more expensive to care for than regular cats?

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I am discussing the cost of Maine Coon caregiving not their purchase price (approx. $1500 for a good example in the United States). It is an important topic for a person who is thinking about buying a Maine Coon especially if it is their first domestic cat companion. In fact, it is probably the most important topic. Budgeting before buying is wise.  RELATED: Why are Maine Coons so expensive? Are they ? Budget for your Maine Coon caregiving. Image: MikeB When you live with cats for a long time you realise that it is not cheap to look after a cat to a good standard. It is a significant item of expenditure which needs to be thought through. You've really got to be in a decent financial position as you don't want a lack of funds to undermine caregiving quality. RELATED: How much will it cost to feed my Maine Coon for ONE YEAR ? You won't find financial spreadsheets on Maine Coon caregiving on the internet. I think we have to apply some common sense. And there is a degree of fle...
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Why do breeders create Maine Coons with big, square muzzles? What's the purpose?

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What's the purpose? Why do Maine Coon breeders go out of their way to create cats with abnormally large and "square" muzzles. They are unnatural. They are more like dog muzzles. Why do breeders create Maine Coons with big, square muzzles? What's the purpose? Image: MikeB. Not common The first point to make is that Maine Coon cats with these kinds of extreme and heavy muzzles are relatively rare. They are quite common on the internet (social media) but on the ground in the "real world" - among the Maine Coon pets - they are much less common. One can be misled by the internet. And the Maine Coon show cats are not like this. They will have heavier than usual muzzles but not the type that we see on social media. The show Maine Coon have slightly heavier and squarer muzzles than normal because they should look natural (see below). Standard guides and encourages But the reason why breeders focus on the muzzle as a defining appearance aspect is because the breed st...
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What is the purpose of lynx tips on a Maine Coon's ears?

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Firstly, the tufts of hair sticking out of the top of a Maine Coon's ear flaps are named after the lynx wild cat as they have them in abundance. The tufts of hair on the lynx wild cat are believed to have a function but we don't know as yet what it is! Perhaps a communication tool via body language. They are likely to be functional to improve survival as almost everything that evolves is designed to improve survival. Maine Coon lynx tips on the ears are purely decorative. Image: MikeB But for the Maine Coon cat these impressive tufts of hair are decorative . They enhance the ear. They decorate the ear as if decorating a sofa with cushions 😎💓. Same thing. There is a rules-based reason: the breed standards insist on them. I've quoted the CFA breed standard in the infographic on this page. The standard allows for breeder discretion which is why you see large variations in the length and density of lynx tips depending on the breeder. The breeders create them over generations ...
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Carbon footprint (CO2e) of a large Maine Coon cat

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Firstly, I would like to mention two points. I have referred to 'large' Maine Coon cats because these are typically seen on the internet and they are not untypical but not all Maine Coon cats are the large animals that we see on the internet. They are the largest domestic cat breed but not always exceptionally larger than the standard cat. But the large Maine Coons are going to be about twice the size of your standard domestic cat. By MikeB. And secondly, carbon footprint is referred to as 'CO2e' which means carbon dioxide equivalent. This means looking at all the gases emitted which contribute to global warming including CO2 (carbon dioxide) in producing all the products needed to support a Maine Coon cat or dog. It is an easy way to refer to the impact that creating and supporting a particular product or animal has on climate change. Infographic The infographic on this page was created by me based upon information on the Zero Smart website which I refer to within the ...
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How many hair strands on a Maine Coon cat?

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A lot is the answer!! When you try and work out the answer to the question in the title there has to be some estimates and a little bit of judicious guesswork but I think I can be reasonably accurate. If you disagree, please tell me. I'd welcome some input on this and would consider amending the page if necessary. Around 14 million! A large Maine Coon is about 2x the size of a random bred cat looking at the many pictures of videos on the internet. That should mean twice the surface area (very approximately). On an earlier calculation that I made for a standard moggie I said that there are 2,500 hair strands per square centimetre. The surface area of the standard cat is around 2,730 square centimetres. This makes 6.825 million hair strands. You might round that up to 7 million hair strands. As the Maine has about twice the surface area of a standard moggie the total number of hairs on a Maine Coon cat would be approximately 14 million. Note: In a previous earlier calculation I said ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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