A Helmi Flick cat photograph.
I don’t know anything about this superb cat other what I see and what I see is the startled expression on the face of a female brown tabby Maine Coon cat with the best lynx tipped ears that I have seen on a Maine Coon and which approach the lynx tips of the cat with the world’s best: the wild cat species called the caracal.
I have said that Lacey is a female Maine Coon. She looks like a lady. But I can get that wrong sometimes and “Lacey” is a girl’s and a boy’s name I am informed.
If I have made a mistake about Lacey – sorry.
I love the wide-eyed look on her face. She is a brown tabby and white, in fact. Brown tabby and white Maine Coons are very attractive. I think this coat type suits a Maine Coon because it is natural and the Maine Coon really should look natural as the breed comes from farm stock of Maine, USA in the time before the 19th century.
To me, Lacey ticks all the boxes. I’d love to have her as my companion. A lot of people search for information which might help them work out what breed their cat is. Most often a person’s cat will be a random bred cat. However, the Maine Coon cat, as is demonstrated by Lacey, has a very particular appearance. The face is well proportioned with a strong, squarish muzzle and the body is long and large supported by long legs with a plumed tail attached. You’ll know if you have a purebred Maine Coon.
There are lots of Maine Coon mixes on the internet which surprises me. Who would allow their purebred Maine Coon to breed with a random bred cat? Maybe someone can answer that for me.
Good question on the mix breeding. Maine Coons are so common here. They are the 2nd most owned cat after the Persian in the United States. I believe that like the Turkish Angora, we may have a pure bred Maine Coon population and a much bigger street variety Maine Coon. Mine was the street variety. I never heard Lacey used as a boys name, but you never know.
This pure bred kitten, about 4 months I’d say, it absolutely gorgeous. Notice she has ‘spider leg’ whiskers! Maine Coons often have the top to curl up and the others do what every they like. The jaw line is perfect! She has that classic muzzle that I love — like a lions — and those tufts are just amazing. You can see that she will grow a bit of a ruff and her features will fill in nicely. I am 90% positive she is a female due to the size of her ears. The males seem to have bigger ones. I would love to see another shot of her in four months or so. Wow, she is gonna wins some awards.
There are several stories about how the Maine Coon got to the Americas. The one that makes the most since to me is the they came via the ancestors of the Norsemen Eric the Red, who found Iceland in 982AD. It is believed that trade between the Icelandic peoples and the French in 1602 and than the other European peoples living in Maine from 1604-1812. The Brits took it over until 1820 when the people of Maine voted to join the American Union.
Maine Coons are part of the Siberian Triangle — Siberian Cats/Norwegian Forest Cats/Maine Coons — all starting from the original Siberian Cats. They moved west through Europe and the Weggies settled in Norway, where they developed their astonishing Icelandic looks! Finally the Maine Coon landed in Maine and they developed into the superstars they are today. Iceland had a to Weggie breeders. I have a few who post in my flickr group. The cool thing about this is they are all natural breeds! See what a few hundred years of evolution can do to a set of cat breeds?
Some Maine Coon trivia…
Thanks for a great contribution to this page. Sorry your comment was not published immediately. No idea why that happened. I like your description of the street Maine Coon. That is a very good point that I missed. That there are moggie Maine Coons in America just like there are moggie Turkish Angoras in Turkey. And I also feel the MC muzzle is most distinctive. It is one of the characteristics that mark out of the MC.
Also the history is interesting. I chose the easiest route: Immigrants from Europe, but the Vikings story also holds water. It is a shame that the American continent did not develop their own domestic cat from a native wildcat. The Americans would have been very proud of their own domestic cat. Mind you if we go back to the Vikings I think we are going back far enough to say the Maine Coon is truly an American cat.