by Amanda C.
(Milwaukee, WI)
I adopted Oprah when she was 3 months old and the lady at the shelter told me they had some “maine coon kittens in” but on her vet sheets it says “domestic MH tabby”.
I am curious if she is a Maine Coon or a mix….she has dog like qualities and follows me from room to room. She is larger than most female cats and has a large fluffy tail.
She also has the “M” between her eyes but one thing I notice she does not have are the tuffs of fur coming from the ears like a lynx. She does have tuffs coming from her paws though and her whiskers are the longest I have ever seen. What do you think?
Amanda
Hi Amanda…. Purebred Maine Coons are quite unusual at shelters. There are some though. Tootsie is an example.
“Domestic MH tabby” must mean a domestic cat that has medium length hair and which is a tabby cat.
Tabby cats are cats with a certain type of hair and pattern. Maine Coons are often tabby cats. Brown tabby and white looks great on a tabby cat.
Maine Coons have medium long hair.
Without papers that provide evidence that she is Maine Coon (pedigree and registration at a cat association) you won’t know if she is a purebred Maine Coon or a Maine Coon mix (one removed from a purebred cat).
The odds are that she is not purebred but there is a chance. You can usually get a feel for it by appearance.
A well bred purebred cat looks purebred (refined appearance and definite appearance).
And Maine Coons do have a distinctive appearance – large and long with a particular facial appearance and those tufts at the top of the ears.
Many people ask a similar question and the only strictly true answer is that she is not a Maine Coon unless you have documentary evidence.