40 Fun Facts About Maine Coon

Which feature of the Maine Coon inspired the folk tale that the breed is part raccoon?

A bushy, ringed tail prompted the tale that house cats had mated with raccoons, which gave the breed the second half of its name. The two species cannot interbreed.

One legend traces the Maine Coon to six pet cats shipped to America by which European royal planning an escape?

Marie Antoinette is said to have sent her cats ahead to the Maine coast before a planned flight from revolutionary France. She never followed, but in the story her pets settled in and bred with local cats.

In the 1950s, after decades out of the show ring, the Maine Coon was prematurely declared to be what?

Extinct was the verdict, but the report was premature: the Central Maine Cat Club, founded in the early 1950s, was already staging shows to revive the breed.

Unlike most cats, the Maine Coon is noted by breed registries for a fascination with which everyday thing?

Water draws many Maine Coons, which will watch a dripping tap, dunk their toys or even try to join an owner in the shower.

Instead of meowing much, the big Maine Coon is known for talking to its owners with which sounds?

Chirps and trills are the Maine Coon's trademark, a tiny voice that seems at odds with so big a cat. A trill is roughly a meow blended with a purr.

The Maine Coon's big, round, tufted paws are often compared to which piece of winter gear?

Snowshoes is the usual comparison, because the large paws help the cat walk on top of snow. Tufts of fur between the pads keep them warm without adding much weight.

Roughly how much did a Texas owner pay in 2004 to have her late Maine Coon, Nicky, commercially cloned?

$50,000 bought Little Nicky, born in October 2004 and billed as the first commercially produced cat clone. His owner said he shared the original Nicky's looks and personality.

Hank, a Maine Coon from Virginia, drew worldwide headlines in 2012 as a joke candidate for which office?

US senator was the job Hank sought, and his owners claimed the 7,319 write-in votes put him third. The stunt raised tens of thousands of dollars for animal charities.

In the Harry Potter films, trained Maine Coons played which cat that prowls the corridors of Hogwarts?

Mrs Norris, caretaker Argus Filch's pet, was played by several Maine Coons. One, Maximus, was trained to run beside the actor and jump onto his shoulders.

The Maine Coon, a tufted longhair from New England, is known among cat lovers by which affectionate nickname?

The gentle giant suits a breed whose males can top 20 pounds yet are famously sweet-tempered. Maine Coons are bigger than many small dogs.

Which official title did Maine's lawmakers give the native Maine Coon by an act passed in 1985?

State cat is the Maine Coon's legal title, written into a statute that is a single sentence long.

One legend credits the Maine Coon's name to a cat-loving man called Coon, who supposedly held which job?

Sea captain is the job in the tale, which says his ship carried a whole tribe of long-haired cats.

Another origin myth says the Maine Coon descends from cats carried to North America centuries before Columbus by whom?

Vikings feature in the myth because the Maine Coon looks so much like the Norwegian Forest cat. Genetic studies found the two breeds are not close relatives.

The Maine Coon resembles Siberian and Norwegian Forest cats not through kinship but through which biological process?

Convergent evolution gave unrelated cats in harsh climates the same kit: thick long coats, tufted ears and big, snow-ready feet.

A Maine Coon named Cosey was judged Best Cat at an 1895 show held in which New York City venue?

Madison Square Garden hosted the event in May 1895, widely counted as the first major cat show held in America.

Cosey, the Maine Coon who won America's first major cat show, received a medal and which silver prize?

A collar went to Cosey along with the medal, and it survives on display at a feline history museum in Alliance, Ohio.

The Maine Coon faded from American cat shows in the early 1900s as which glamorous long-haired breed took over?

Persian cats, newly fashionable imports, pushed the home-grown breed aside. After a 1911 win in Portland, Oregon, no Maine Coon took a national show for over 40 years.

Many early Maine Coons in New England were born with which paw trait, later penalised by cat show rules?

Extra toes, known as polydactyly, were common in the original cats. Show rules made the trait a disqualifying fault, so breeders nearly bred it out.

Geneticists named a paw mutation long common in the Maine Coon after which cat-loving American novelist?

Ernest Hemingway kept a famous colony of polydactyl cats at his Key West home, so geneticists call the Maine Coon variant the Hemingway mutant.

The Maine Coon was counted the largest domestic cat breed until which wild-cat hybrid arrived in the 1980s?

Savannah cats, bred from an African serval and a domestic cat, took the crown. The Maine Coon is still the largest breed that is not a hybrid.

The slow-maturing Maine Coon typically reaches which milestone at three to five years old, long after most cats?

Full adult size takes a Maine Coon three to five years to reach, whereas most cats are done growing at about one.

Missi, a Maine Coon from Finland, earned a Guinness World Record in 2005 for having the longest what?

Whiskers measuring 19 cm (7.5 in) won Missi the record, taken at her home in Iisvesi with owner Kaija Kyllönen.

Cat registries say the clever, sociable Maine Coon can readily be taught to play which game with its owner?

Fetch is a Maine Coon favourite, one reason the breed is so often called dog-like. Some will also walk on a lead and learn to open doors.

Which coat colour and pattern, shared with an 1895 show champion called Cosey, is most common in the Maine Coon?

Brown tabby is the classic Maine Coon look, though the breed is shown in nearly every colour, from solid black to tortoiseshell.

The Maine Coon is shown in nearly every colour, but breed standards bar which pattern as a sign of crossbreeding?

Colorpoint markings, the pale body and dark face, ears and feet of a Siamese, are read as proof of an outcross, so such cats are kept out of the show ring.

In 2005 the Maine Coon became the first cat breed with a known gene mutation for a disease of which organ?

Heart disease in the form of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the muscle wall, runs in some Maine Coon lines. Breeders now screen cats with a DNA test and ultrasound scans.

Like many big dog breeds, the heavy-boned Maine Coon is prone to dysplasia, a malformation of which joint?

Hip dysplasia showed up in about a quarter of the Maine Coon X-rays sent to one US orthopedic registry. Big males are hit hardest.

Decades before formal cat shows, proud owners in the 1860s crowned a champion Maine Coon at which kind of event?

An agricultural fair at Skowhegan, Maine, staged the contest, where farmers swapped stories about their cats and competed for a champion's title.

Which name do breed standards give the longer fur on a Maine Coon's neck and chest, heavier in males than females?

Ruff is the term, and a thick one, starting at the base of the ears, gives some cats a decidedly leonine look.

Breed standards borrow which old word for trousers to name the long fur on a Maine Coon's hind legs?

Britches is the show-ring word for the dense fur on the back legs, grown long to shield the cat from wet and snow.

Breed standards describe the long, muscular, broad-chested body of the Maine Coon as which overall shape?

Rectangular is the word in the standards, which ask for a long body with every part in proportion. One standard warns that quality must never be traded for sheer bulk.

Like the Siberian and the Norwegian Forest cat, the Maine Coon falls into which category used by cat registries?

A natural breed is one shaped by climate and survival, not by a breeder's plan, and the Maine Coon is among the oldest in North America.

Which US registry turned down the Maine Coon three times before granting it championship status in 1976?

Cat Fanciers' Association officials refused the breed provisional status three times, which spurred owners to found the Maine Coon Cat Club in 1973 and keep lobbying.

After his Guinness record made him famous, Stewie the Maine Coon took up which second career in Reno?

Therapy cat was Stewie's second career: he visited hospitals and a senior centre, and patients' remarks about his tail led to a second world record.

What does a Maine Coon typically do with its long, bushy tail when curling up on a freezing night?

Wraps it around itself: the tail works like a built-in scarf over the face and shoulders, blocking wind and blowing snow.

Britain's main cat registry permits blue or odd-coloured eyes only in a Maine Coon with which coat colour?

White cats are the exception; otherwise the standard colours for a Maine Coon's eyes are green, gold or copper.

In a famous legend about royal pets sent to Maine, the Maine Coon's forebears were which long-haired breed?

Turkish Angora cats are named in most tellings of the tale, in which the royal owner never completed her own escape.

One registry notes that some owners keep a hard-to-groom Maine Coon clipped short in which popular grooming style?

Lion cut clipping is an option for Maine Coons whose cottony coats would otherwise need daily combing; silkier coats take far less work.

Which word do American show standards pair with 'smooth' to describe the Maine Coon's distinctive coat?

Shaggy is the standard's word: the coat hangs in uneven lengths, short on the shoulders and long on the belly, yet falls smoothly.

In the legend of royal cats shipped ahead of a planned escape, the Maine Coon's ancestors landed at which Maine town?

Wiscasset is where the tale says the pets arrived safely and bred with local short-haired cats, although their owner never made the crossing.