This is an update on Tootsie, a rescued, polydactyl Maine Coon who has been described as “typey”. That cat breeders’ word means that she looks the way a Maine Coon should look. In other words, Tootsie is a genuine purebred Maine Coon, the salt of the earth American barn cat mouser turned show cat. She lives with Valley Girl in Atlanta, USA. Valley Girl (an internet name shortened to “VG”) has a blog about cats and other things that is a sub-domain of PoC. “Sub-domain” means it is a part of PoC but a free standing website at the same time.
VG is a science lecturer who likes her photography. She is more used to SLR cameras. SLR stands for “single lens reflex”. This comes from the old days of film. The term is still used. You look through the lens via an eyepiece, a pentaprism and a mirror.
Tootsie is quite a well known cat on the internet. If you google “polydactyl maine coon” you’ll probably see a couple of pictures by VG of Tootsie at the top of page one. Great. One of the pictures illustrates an article on a cat’s sense of touch, which I wrote years ago.
Tootsie’s coat is described as “silver patched tabby”. Tabby is the best for Maine Coons as it is the way they looked 400 years ago. It makes them look more like barn cats. We know that Maine Coons have a predisposition towards polydactylism. Some people say this is because the original Maine Coons were long haired ship’s cats from Europe and sailors selected cats with polydactyl feet because they believed they were better seafarers. The extra toes making them better on deck.
I’ll finish with a few quotes by VG on Tootsie from her Flickr webpages and her website. Tootsie is a pretty active cat and she has a good turn of speed:
..I clocked her on one long stretch about a week ago- well it was a “guesstimate”, but she was moving at ~ 25 mph…
VG found Tootsie online:
I found her online, via a local cat rescue charity. Uh, this was the photo they posted….And, the description was not exactly encouraging either- shy, needs patient person, etc. But, she is a purebred Maine coon, and I’ve long been fascinated by tales of the Maine coon. She was put into rescue because her owner became ill, and could no longer care for her.
Here is the picture of Tootsie as advertised by the rescue center.
I’ll let VG make a comment to fill in some blanks that I have no doubt left. Associated page: American Polydactyl Cat.
What I like is that she is typey and girley 🙂 You can tell she is a female cat. Or am just turning into a cat….
Marc,
As a p.s. “Tootsie” was her name when I adopted her, and I decided it was just right. I actually got info about which cattery she came from (because I asked for the documents more than once), and her registered name is xxx Thumbs Up. xxx = cattery name, but not sure I should give that away.
And, in response to Michael’s “typey” (not your comments) her sire was a “champion cat” (cat show terms). I guess he was a pretty spectacular Maine coon. I’ve been told (anonymous sources) that “everyone wanted one of his kittens”. Dam was poly.
Oh, as another p.s., it was somewhere around a one in a gazillion chance that I found a purebred Maine coon via petfinder. As I said somewhere else in comments “Kismet”.
VG
General comment as to the “typey” thing.
Tootsie is not an “official” Maine coon according to CFA and TICA standards, because she’s polydactyl. There’s a long history of controversy about the poly issue.
But, these “agencies” also have very specific guidelines otherwise as to “typey”. Can’t dig out the links right now. But, I’ve been told by two different cat breeders, one I met at a cat show, and another that I met via flickr that Tootsie is very “typey”. In part has to do with the shape of her muzzle (very strong) and the way her ears are set. There are specifics as to the ears, having to do with the space between them, and how tall and erect they are. Toosie apparently has very good ears. As one of the breeders told me after I sent her pics of Tootsie “she has very good ears, considering her age!” To put this in context, most cats shown at cat shows are somewhere around max. 3 years old. Michael can correct me if I’m wrong about that, as he’s been to way more cat shows than I have.
VG
Ruth, I just happened to have internet friends from other sites, so their views and comments kept me going. Plus, I never had particularly high expectations. I had found a lot of youtubes of cats that I’d bookmarked (youtube addict at the time, also finding youtubes for the courses I was teaching), and on a whim, I thought, well why not share these? So, I didn’t start out from scratch, trying to figure out what to write about. But, blogging continually is a challenge. At some point, my day job became so pressing that I more or less had to let the blog languish. But, with Michael’s help, perhaps it can be resurrected, now that I’ve decided to take early retirement and can the day job!
Marc,
Yes, she was not presented as the ideal adoptive cat. The particular agency that was “advertising” her had a regular place at Petsmart or some other comparable place. The room they had had 8 or so cats in cages who basically lived at Petsmart. These of course were the most friendly and outgoing cats, and Tootsie was not part of this cadre. Also, I think there’s a preference for adopting younger cats, and Tootsie was six years old. As you say, about cats in shelter situations being scared, shy and introverted, yes, absolutely. And, their health suffers.
I asked some questions when I went to adopt Tootsie. It turned out that for the four months she was at the shelter no one had seen her grooming herself, and no one had heard her purr. Plus, when I took her to the vet immediately after adopting her, it turned out that she was seriously underweight. She only weighed just six pounds, and was very bony. She’s tipping the scales now at over eight pounds, which is about right, considering that she is pretty small for a Maine coon.
And, yes, she is a wonderful cat.
VG
Dan, Tootsie thanks you. She’s my “beauty cat” aka “Ms Fluffy pants” etc.
For you and others below, some background.
I got fascinated by Maine coons after I started my cat blog. I was “addicted” to watching youtube videos of cats. And, on a whim, I thought “why not share these great vids?”
I didn’t have a cat, and the cats in the youtubes were my virtual “kitties”. I come from a cat loving family, and at that point, I’d suffered too much “cat grief” to even think about getting another cat. Course, my friends kept telling me (like for years), “VG, you need to get a cat”.
Never had a purebred cat before, but as said above, the Maine coons I saw on youtube fascinated me. Not sure I can remember why, but in part because of their silly and quirky behavior. If you look at archives of my blog, you’ll see that I was posting more and more vids of Maine coons.
And, then I kinda said to myself, well, if I ever get another cat, I want a Maine coon. But, I was not committed to getting another cat. Nonetheless, I started checking out petfinder.com, and also trying to identify breeders in my area. Just to get oriented to the idea of “maybe”. I spent a lot more time on petfinder than I did checking out the cat breeders. Just because every cat that was part of my extended cat-loving family was a rescue cat of some sort or other. I checked out petfinder for months, sometimes every day, sometimes occasionally.
And, then, Kismet! Tootsie appeared. Michael showed the pic posted at petfinder, and she looked pretty miserable. She had been put into rescue because her owner was ill, and could no longer care for her. And, the description was not exactly inviting. Purebred Maine coon, but not so friendly with humans or other cats. Needs very patient person, etc. Aha! “Needs patient person”. That snagged me, along with the fact that she was genuine Maine coon. The “patient” part… well, I figured that I could do that.
I’ll leave other parts of the story until later in comments.
But, here is a link to my TKA post describing my first meeting with Tootsie.
http://teh-kitteh-antidote-anecdote.pictures-of-cats.org/2007/01/i-haz-confessun-i-now-haz-non-virtual.html
VG