This is another very impressively large Maine Coon cat. I don’t know his name. I don’t know where the photograph was taken either. Perhaps someone can help? What you can see from the photograph is that his face is about the same size as the face of his human guardian (including the fur!), which is rare for a domestic cat!
He has a mane which is a bit like the mane of a lion. He has forelegs which look extraordinarily thick and overall he looks to be quite a stocky cat especially which is unusual as the Maine Coon is normally quite rangy. His large and strong muzzle reminds me of the big cats; lion, jaguar, tiger or leopard. He has a very placid, big cat countenance.
The other cat appears to be a black-and-white cat. I am sure he/she is a random bred cat. We are used to seeing black-and-white cats with large areas of black and, usually, smaller areas of white, but in this case the black and the white has been fragmented to create this very unusual appearance.
We would have to ask Sarah Hartwell to tell us what is going on genetically. As far as I can tell this is a black-and-white cat and therefore the white spotting gene is working (to create the white fur) but the way that it has worked has been modified by other genes so this coat is the result of polygenes, as I see it, but that is a layman talking.
He or she seems to have a blob of something on his face to the left of his nose. I don’t know what that is but it is a little concerning. There is also some grey in the coat. Is this the workings of the dilution gene?
I’ve never seen a black-and-white cat with a coat like this. Both these cats are exceptional in my opinion.
Thanks for the latest article Sarah, it made very interesting reading.
My older sister has vitiligo. She developed a white patch on her throat when she was pregnant with her first child, so perhaps for her the trigger was hormone related? Over the years her fair skin has become almost paper white over much of her body. She has to wear high factor sun screen on even the mildest of days. So I’m guessing that any cat suffering from vitiligo who has access to go outside, would also be at increased risk for sun burn.
I’m going to disagree with you slightly on this one. The lens used by the person operating the camera is perhaps a very moderate wide-angle or standard lens and the person standing about 6 feet away from the subject. The standard lens is less inclined to create perspective issues. However, a wide angle lens will have an effect but a moderate wild angle such as a 40 mm (on full frame sensor) will only have a marginal impact.
I agree that the Maine Coon is nearer the lens than the person which will create perspective and make the cat’s head look larger compared to the person holding the cat but I don’t think that substantially affects the assessment of this cat’s size. This cat is clearly a very big Maine Coon.
Hi Sarah, everything you say comments is always helpful and much appreciated! I knew there was something technical which I had not heard of about this interesting cat coat.
The Maine Coon photo is a case of forced perspective making the head look bigger in proportion to the body and to the handler.