Maine Coon BreedThe Maine Coon breed of cat has several amusing, but unlikely legends about its origins...
Marie Antoinette and the Maine Coon breed.A very popular legend concerning the origin of Maine Coon cats, revolves around Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution. The story would have us believe that the French queen commanded a certain Captain Clough to prepare to smuggle her out of France to Maine. The dutiful Captain had his ship loaded with the queen's opulent furniture, jewelry, and other treasured possessions. Marie Antoinette was a cat lover. Captain Clough was aware of this and installed six of the queen's favorite longhaired cats onboard. Unfortunately things went wrong for the queen, the captain, and the cats. Before she could make her escape, Marie Antoinette was captured by the revolutionaries, and thrown in prison to await execution. In fear of his own life, Captain Clough immediately set off with the cats to Maine. On reaching Maine, the legend has it that the six longhaired kitties mated with local shorthaired cats, and produced the first litters of what was to become the Maine Coon breed. An interesting romantic tale, it is unfortunately untrue.
Captain Coon and his seafaring longhaired cats.
This tale has it that a sea captain, an Englishman named Charles Coon, amassed a collection of dozens of longhaired cats to keep the rat population under control onboard his ship. Whenever his ship dropped anchor at New England, the pack went ashore along with the captain. The seafaring longhaired cats of Captain Coon soon met with the local feral cat population, and mating naturally occurred. After the pack of cats had gone back to sea with Captain Coon, litters were produced with a proportion of longhaired cats. These hairy felines were referred to as Coon's cats. Does this legend revel the true origin of the Maine Coon breed? Highly unlikely, although Maine State library records of that period do show the existence of a seafaring man named Coon, the captain of a whaler. One of two beliefs, once held about the beginnings of the Maine Coon breed, was the fantastic notion that they were the products of inter-breeding between raccoons, and feral domestic cats. Genetically impossible, of course. This mythical story most likely came about due to the brown tabby variety of America's native longhair having a fat ringed tail, in appearance not unlike a raccoon's tail. Also, Maine Coon cats often talk with a chirpy trill, which is not dissimilar to the sound of a young raccoon. The other, absolutely untrue but amusing, myth about the origin of the Main Coon breed is that they came about through the mating of bobcats and domestic cats. Possibly the fact that Maine Coon cats have tufts on their ears and feet that are similar to the bobcat's, caused this legend to spread. Truth is, that the bobcat would be far more likely to view a domestic feline as potential lunch, rather than as a possible mating partner. © Copyright www.best-cat-art.com
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