The Maine Coon

Origin:

The Maine Coon is one of the oldest catbreeds of North America. In the northeast of America , a territory that we now know as New England where the first Maine Coon found.

On the answhere where the Maine Coon came from are many beautiful stories.

We presume that they are original from the state of Maine. This explains the first part of the name.
The second part refers to the populair story that they are a product from a cross-breeding from housecats and raccoons.

Although a tabby Maine Coon with his full tail looks like a raccoon , this is genetic impossible.

A other romantic explanation refers to the import of the Angora cats from Marie-Antoinette, brought to america throug sailors and colonist from Europe at the end of the 18 century.

The third version refers to the vikings , they should have taken a Norwegian Forestcat during their travels over the Atlantic ocean. The Norwegian Forestcat looks a lot like a Maine Coon , these cats could have mixed with the local cats.

Althoug les romantic then the other stories but the most plausible is the second story.

The cats bred and the strongest survived in the cold climate. Those cats adapt and after many generation's it became the breed Maine Coon.

About 1825 began the people of New England organising country fairs. On these festivals the people began to show their animals , it began with a horse and bulls. After some time they also showed their peds , cats and dogs. There was a show with trained dogs and farmcats , although their isn't much written those days we believe that these were one of the first catshows.

On the National cat show , a six day during show in 1878 there were 12 Maine Coon showed . This means in my opinion that the Maine Coon was then already recognized as a breed. The interest for the Maine Coon grow during a big catshow in New York in 1895 there were showed 175 Maine Coon cats. Around 1968 established the Maine Coon Breeders and Fanciers Association (MCBFA).
Thanks to them the Maine Coon was recognized by all American associations.

There was now a standard for the Maine Coon cat. In 1976 the Maine Coon cat where introduced in Europe by Connie Condit (cattery Heidi Ho) and Pat Robbins (cattery Gemutlichkatze).

They both were living in Germany and where asked on a German catshow to show their cats.

The European people where enthusiast whitch later turned in the recognicion of the Maine Coon by the FIFe (Federation Internationale Feline) in 1982. The independance catclubs did recognice the Maine Coon much earlier.

Character and Appearance :

In spite of the wild apperance of the Maine Coon is his character very tolerant. He isn't obtrusive , but he is playful and also intelligent. He is quiet and humbel , he also will not use his nails and will avoid fightings.

Males are more active than females those are more reserved against strangers. The cats are easy to comb ,they grow bigger then housecats.

The female can weigh around 4 till 8 kilograms (8 kilograms is a rarity). The Male can Weigh around 6 till 10 kilograms (10 kilograms is a rarity).

This breed develops very slowly , around with the age of 3 they are adult. The fleece is water repelend , once a week brushing will be enough. Brown tabby is the most complaisant color , this is also the most populair color of the breed.

The Maine Coon does has almost all colors only the non natural colors arn't recogniced.

Author:

Anneke en Alex de Vries "Aviricoon's Cattery", The Netherlands

e-mail: aviri@iaehv.nl

Homepage: Http://www.iaehv.nl/users/aviri/index.htm