Thread: What made you choose a Maine Coon?

I was brought up around Siamese cats and once i left home vowed i would never get such a loud needy breed of cat! You couldn't even go to the bathroom without these cats howling at the other side of the door! lol

Anyway when i was 17 i was taken to a Great Dane breeders house and told to pick a puppy. I was soooo happy and got my first Great Dane, a harlequin called Blue. However i also met my first Maine Coon. Imagine that a giant dog breeder who also had a giant cat! lol

I have had a couple of Great Danes since then but never got my Maine Coon! Well since my last Dane died i've been looking into them again and have decided we're settled enough and ready for our Maine Coon. Now i just have to find one!

Originally I was just looking for a moggie, wasn't interested in a pedigree at all.

However I was looking through various listings online for kittens and saw Maine Coon kittens advertised in one ad - now, being British my initial reaction to the name is obviously going to be different than our friends across the pond - once I had finished laughing / being in a state of disbelief I went to Google to find out what was going on.

Then I find out that not only is the breed unfortunately named, they are also massive by cat standards.

So then I carry on reading about this novelty oversized, racially inappropriately named cat and find out that they are known for having an awesome disposition and temperement, that they are smart, and are a pretty healthy breed. Also the kitten pictures were just adorable.

The rest as they say is history. MCs > All other cats.

I had a Persian/Manx mix for 13.5 years and miss him.

Sometimes referred to him as a "Manx/Coon" {grin}



Spencer I or the honorific Spencer The Lion



Just looking at this guy in the pound, I think it's obvious why he is now Spencer II.

I grew up with cats, (fish, rats and hamsters) and my boyfriend had cats so have always been cat people. My boyf had a cat when we got together but we moved to a flat where we weren't allowed pets (had no other options) so had to give him to a friend (where he's prospered!)
Since then we said that when we bought a place and could afford it we'd get 1 or 2 kittens (despite both of us being allergic and him being asthmatic on top of that). I've got to say I never previously considered having a pedigree, grew up with moggies and loved them but a friend of mine got a beautiful MC and I just loved her personality and look.
We bought our house last June and prompted by my friend's cat I started looking into MCs; to be honest once I've got an idea in my head that's kind of it...
Did a lot of research in Dec and decided they were definitely for me (us) and in early Jan found Susan (Sueragdandy) online and made contact... Fortuitously she had kittens that were due to be ready in March (which was enough prep time) and had silver tabbies; we saw Rasputin's picture and both instantly decided he was the one. The rest, as they say, is history....

Some lovely stories here but mine is rather less interesting and simply involved a cat magazine, once I'd seen the photos of the coonies I couldn't put them out of my mind. We had three children, a big house, dogs a pony and a pygmy goat, so why not some cats? After a trip to Cornwall to see some in the fur it was a done deal and I've loved them ever since.

Actually the big house etc is long gone but I still have nine MCs, which probably says it all!

When I moved in with my now fiance I missed my cats from home, Id always lived with dogs and cats, rabbits, hamsters, you know it we probably had it. My fiance wasn't a fan of cats, but liked dogs. I'd heard that maine coons are the cats for dog lovers so I suggested he researched into them. He did and phoned me from work all excited about the prospect of a maine coon! I then looked into them and fell in love with the breed before even meeting a maine coon! We went to see a local breeder and fell in love with this boysterous little kitten we met, his mum and dad were beautiful and we ended up buying him!
Pangur has totally changed my fiance's opinion on cats, he's absolutely in love with him. As am I he's a lovely boy.

Your story is basically the same as mine although we're still at the point where we're waiting until we can take our little guy home.

Aw, I remember the wait for Pangur. Seemed like forever. Our boy's three in September!

Tell me about it it'll all be worth it in the end - I bet I'll be saying that when Ted's turning three! Any plans for more? I don't know if I could restrain myself for three years...we shall see!