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Old 08-08-2016, 11:36 AM
PHC1 PHC1 is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Pa
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Terry, Congratulations! Looking forward to pictures and stories of your new family member Mickey!

After many, many years of not having a cat in the house and I always considered myself to be more of a dog person, our soon to be 1 year old Siberian cat Meeka adds so much to our lives with his presence.

It is interesting that Main Coons look so much like Siberians, when I was researching the topic, it turns out that the Siberian is considered genetically ancestral to all modern long hair cats. Where it gets interesting is that The Siberian Forest cat is closely related to the Norwegian Forest cat which is logical due to geography but from there...

The generally accepted hypothesis among breeders is that the Maine Coon is descended from the pairings of local short-haired domestic cats and long-haired breeds brought overseas by English seafarers (possibly by Captain Charles Coon) or 11th-century Norsemen. The connection to the Norsemen is seen in the strong resemblance of the Maine Coon to the Norwegian Forest Cat, another breed that is said to be a descendant of cats that traveled with the Norsemen.
The ancestral origins of the Maine Coon are unknown there is only speculation and folk tales. One such folk tale involves Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France, who was executed in 1793. The story goes that before her death, Antoinette attempted to escape France with the help of Captain Samuel Clough. She loaded Clough's ship with her most prized possessions, including six of her favorite Turkish Angora cats. Although she did not make it to the United States, her pets safely reached the shores of Wiscasset, Maine, where they bred with other short-haired breeds and developed into the modern breed of the Maine Coon.

Another folk tale involves Captain Charles Coon, an English seafarer who kept long-haired cats aboard his ships. Whenever Coon's ship would anchor in New England ports, the felines would exit the ship and mate with the local feral cat population. When long-haired kittens began appearing in the litters of the local cat population, they were referred to as one of "Coon's cats


Main Coon




Siberian

Last edited by PHC1; 08-08-2016 at 12:15 PM.
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