Purebred stray Maine Coon?

mr_fancy

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Jul 14, 2010
Messages
1
Purraise
0
We recently adopted a kitten that a friend of ours had found as a stray. She has a very adorable and unusual appearance, so I was taking a look at different cat breeds, and it turns out she fits the profile of Maine Coon exactly. I don't have a good pic, but she has all the tell-tale characteristics: black/gray "racoon" coloration, a big fluffy tail, tufts of white fur that come out of her ears, long hair on her paws and belly but shorter hair on her head and back, and very large paws, eyes, and ears. The only things that don't seem Maine Coon about her are her size (she's small for her age), and her hair seems a bit shorter than the Maine Coons in pictures I've seen online. Other than that though, she looks EXACTLY like the pictures of that black/gray type of Maine Coon.

Is it possible that she is a full-blooded Maine Coon? Would it be very strange for a purebred kitten to end up wandering around stray like that? Or, is it common that a cat with only part Maine Coon ancestry might still end up looking so much like a purebred?

Thanks!
 

ruthyb

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 28, 2009
Messages
5,314
Purraise
16
Location
Derbyshire UK.
It is possible, my Billy was a "stray" I took him in after 3 months of feeding him outside and coaxing him indoors, when I took him to get nuetured the vet said you do realise he is a pure bred British Blue, its amazing but they are worthless without registration papers.......to me....Billy is priceless and someone has lost out on a beautiful and loving cat who is now my faithful friend.xx
 

dave_ph

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
May 8, 2009
Messages
363
Purraise
1
Location
Palm Harbor, Fl
It's always possible. My next door neighbors sent a pure bred Show Champion Ragdoll out to fend for herself on the streets because she didn't get along with another Ragdoll they had for breeding and the husband didn't like her behavoir. She was pooping, spraying and not getting along with their male breeder.

I took her in. Her pooping, spraying and behavior problems were because she had been incompletely spayed.

Technically a stray cat but a purebred.
 

samhainborn

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
May 26, 2009
Messages
536
Purraise
1
Location
Brundidge, AL
Try going to a humane society shelter some time. There are all kinds there, from street dogs and cats, to purebreds. I've seen whole litters of purebred huskies and dalmations at shelters before, and the cat my mother had was a half Himalayan half Persian from a shelter too. (he even had papers -- Aurora's King Triton was his name, we called him fat cat)

You'd think that paying a good deal of money would keep these animals off the streets, but they escape their homes, get lost, and of course there are always those thoughtless people out there who just don't care. There are always breeder mills too, like my mother-in-law who breeds German sheps purely for profit. She only cares what happens to them because each puppy sells for $300 to $400 each, and each one tht dies is money out of her pocket. If you have 15+ animals, it's easy to lose track of one. Or ten.

Crossbreeds can also look amazingly like either one parent or the other. You might even have a 3/4 cross, with one purebred parent and one half-breed. There are small MC's, but they're not very common. I've only seen 2 small ones in my entire life, and one was a 3/4 cross, and one was a 7/8 cross.

I bet the kitten is absolutely adorable though. That MC face is just priceless.
 

dave_ph

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
May 8, 2009
Messages
363
Purraise
1
Location
Palm Harbor, Fl
My second kitty Mia is a purebread Lilac Colorpoint. She's an extremely rare cat that my vet had posession of after she was 'confiscated' from a breeder. I don't know why Mia and the breeders other cats were confiscated but some of them might have eventually ended up in a shelter if my Vet hadn't paired me up with Mia and adopted Mia's mom herself.

There are homeless purebreads.
 

goldenkitty45

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Aug 29, 2005
Messages
19,900
Purraise
44
Location
SW Minnesota
Its possible - at least one parent to be a Maine Coon. The origins are from local barn cats with long fur and over the decades they were bred to a written standard (same thing happened with American SH cats).

MC kittens lack a long coat - takes 4-5 yrs to fully develop the coat. Females are smaller (10-12 lbs). But since the kitten has no papers, its a domestic long hair cat (or you can call it a MC look alike if you want).

Then you have the backyard breeders who don't neuter and spay their kittens, so its possible to be purebred with no papers. I just looked at our craigslist - there's a "breeder" in the city that is "rehoming" Bengals - and NOT neutering/spaying these kittens. Which means you have more people who will buy them and breed them.
 

nekochan

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Aug 5, 2006
Messages
2,760
Purraise
22
Location
Chicago, IL
It is possible but not common.
There are also a lot of domestic long hair (random bred) cats out there that have a resemblance to Maine Coons despite having no purebred ancestry whatsoever.
Female Maine Coons are not really that large. Mine is just over 10 pounds at 2 1/2 years old, but they keep growing until about 4 or 5.
 

StefanZ

Advisor
Staff Member
Advisor
Joined
Sep 18, 2005
Messages
25,995
Purraise
10,639
Location
Sweden
Originally Posted by SamhainBorn

but they escape their homes, get lost,
Yes. I do have touch with the Russian blue world here in Sweden. Fairly big breed here for a small race, but still - we arent big compared with say - the Persians, Norvegian forest, Ragdoll.

And - I do know of several cases where Russians did run away or get lost. Often in connection with travels. Sometimes they were found again. Alive and healthy - or not. Sometimes they never did get found...
I do really hope most of these not found did went stolen... Perhaps by a dishonest rescuer.

So certainly, it DOES happens now and then, and isnt not so very uncommon.
 

northernglow

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jan 3, 2009
Messages
2,061
Purraise
34
Location
Finland
Originally Posted by Ruthyb

It is possible, my Billy was a "stray" I took him in after 3 months of feeding him outside and coaxing him indoors, when I took him to get nuetured the vet said you do realise he is a pure bred British Blue
Interesting, can I see a good picture of him? Do you have a breed called British Blue over there or did the vet/you just mean that he's a blue British Shorthair?

I've also heard of cases where a stud has escaped (luckily in the cases I've heard of they were always found), so I think it's more likely to have a mixed breed (with one purebred parent) than to have a true purebred stray.
 

goldenkitty45

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Aug 29, 2005
Messages
19,900
Purraise
44
Location
SW Minnesota
Was a case back in the late 80's where the local shelter in DC had picked up an unneutered male Cornish Rex and neutered him and placed him.

There was a nearby backyard breeder of Cornies (was not a reputable one - false papers, poor quelity, etc) but she never claimed this cat. Good thing too as I met a person that got one of their kittens and had a lot of medical problems and told me the breeder was letting them go at 8 weeks old, not spayed/neutered and the kittens were kept in cages with no socialization. This person met me at a show and was impressed with my Cornies.

Who knows how many street cats in the area were carrying the Cornish Rex gene before the boy got neutered. And sooner or later there would be a curly kitten born to non-curly parents.
 

missymotus

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 8, 2005
Messages
9,234
Purraise
254
DLH's can resemble MC's, but having a few traits doesn't make them a MC or a mix.

I wouldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t put much faith in most vets to determine breed either.

Originally Posted by SamhainBorn

Try going to a humane society shelter some time. There are all kinds there, from street dogs and cats, to purebreds.
Unfortunately people donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t always do the right thing by the breeder and will surrender the cat or sell on rather than contact their breeder.
Most breeders will take the cat back or assist in rehoming (since itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s not always best for anyone involved to take it back)

I myself have a foster Oci, with papers, that the breeder and I found advertised online. They didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t want to fly her back so Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve got her for now with breeders permission since Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m local.

Had we not come across the advert who knows where she could have ended up.


Originally Posted by SamhainBorn

the cat my mother had was a half Himalayan half Persian from a shelter too. (he even had papers -- Aurora's King Triton was his name, we called him fat cat)
Himi is a color of Persian, not a separate breed.

Originally Posted by NorthernGlow

Interesting, can I see a good picture of him? Do you have a breed called British Blue over there or did the vet/you just mean that he's a blue British Shorthair?
It's a blue cat, so Russian if skinny and British if chubby


Originally Posted by NorthernGlow

I've also heard of cases where a stud has escaped (luckily in the cases I've heard of they were always found), so I think it's more likely to have a mixed breed (with one purebred parent) than to have a true purebred stray.
It would be quite remarkable for an escaped purebred to hook up with another purebred escapee of the same breed
 

northernglow

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jan 3, 2009
Messages
2,061
Purraise
34
Location
Finland
Originally Posted by missymotus

It's a blue cat, so Russian if skinny and British if chubby


It would be quite remarkable for an escaped purebred to hook up with another purebred escapee of the same breed
Right, forgot that.


Yeah, over here all the longhairs are always half-Norwegian+half Persian, or Half-Angora if the seller is an older person who has never seen a purebred. They sure seem to run around unneutered alot these days..


There was a case last year where an American Curl stud ran away while visiting away from home town, it was a small city so if any curly ear-kittens appear it will be easy to know who was behind it. The male was found after 24h search, easy to spot because of his ears. He was fine, luckily.

Also agree about vets knowing nothing about breeds: I was visiting a new vet (had a discount coupon, lol) and she asked me if my Kuura (BSH male) is a Burmese! Even the look is different, but have you ever heard of a silver shaded Burmese?? I also had my Scottish Fold boy Tomu with me, and later she asked "And this is a European Shorthair, right?" I looked at her and thought she was kidding me, but she wasn't.....
No wait, I think this is more appropriate smilie:


But back to the main subject: it would be good to see a picture so we can look at the kitten. People can describe things so differently (head shape for example) that it's hard to say anything without seeing a pic first.
 
Top