What is a Maine Coon Cat?
Well, let’s start with the name. The name ‘Maine’ comes form the North eastern American State where the breed is thought to have originated. The ‘Coon’ bit is a little more difficult. The original cats tended to be brown tabbies, with very dark back and a long flowing tail, rather like a raccoon, and long ago, people thought that they must have evolved from matings between domestic cats and raccoons. Of course we now know that this is genetically impossible, but this may have been where the name came from. In fact there are lots of legends surrounding the Maine Coon’s origins, including one that they originally came from Marie-Antionette, and were transported to America from France for safety when things started heating up at the time of the French revolution. However, it is far more likely that the Maine Coon actually evolved from matings between domestic shorthairs introduced by early settlers and angora types later taken across the Atlantic by seafarers. This is where Darwin’s theor
