When They Had Jobs

The story of the Maine Coon Polydactyl Cat  

Furkats Alexander, brown classic tabby & white polydactyl with a real live mouse 

The following quotes were taken from articles in local newspapers and magazines.  They were found in published documents from in or near the State of Maine .  These quotes support the notion that the Maine Coon Cat was a long established working breed.  These selections further make it clear that the Maine Coon Cats were respected for their strength, character and ability to survive in the harsh New England climate. 

According to Jeff Clark who wrote in Dec, 1994 in Down East Magazine that “Indeed, old timers who once gave away coon cat kittens to any passing tourist who asked for one, would be more than a little chagrined to lean that the cats are now worth staggering sums.” He goes on to note “the coon cat’s sudden and wide spread popularity isn’t an entirely new phenomenon.  Maine Coons dominated the professional American cat-show circuit in the late nineteenth century before their plebeian origins saw them banished in favor of more exotic varieties.  After all, why should a chichi Persian that could trace its bloodline back to the Crusades have to compete against a feisty barn cat of uncertain ancestry with a taste for fresh-caught rat?”

Appearing in Down East Magazine, October of 1978, Mimi E. B. Steadman wrote, “when October winds grow brisk, some Maine housecats retreat to a favorite corner by the kitchen cookstove.  Not so the native Maine Coon Cat.  This hardy breed is dressed for the weather in long shaggy hair and a dense undercoat perfectly adapted to slough off heavy snow and seal out the cold.  In conditions that would send a shivering short-haired cat back to the hearth, Maine Coons can range far a field, their oversized tufted paws-sometimes endowed with extra toes – allowing them to snowshoe through frozen woods,  and their heavy – boned frames ideally suited to bushwhacking in rugged terrain.  The long rectangular body profile, as opposed to the Persian’s square build, enables these cats to wind their way over and around heavy undergrowth and fallen trees with an agile speed that has insured their survival for some two hundred years.”

  In other article by Mimi E. B. Steadman called “You Can Tell New Englanders By The Cats They Keep”.  The author noted that “Because double-pawed or polydactyl, cats have been a New England favorite for almost 300 years, one can trace the last three centuries migration of region residents by keeping an eye out for these large-footed felines! “…This article notes that Dr, Neil B Todd, adjunct professor at Boston University ’s Department of Biology …has spend several years tallying the occurrence of extra-toed or polydactyl cats in New England .  This genetic mutation, giving the cats the appearance of having double paws, is far more common among Northeastern felines than among cats anywhere else in the world.  In fact, Todd’s survey of Boston cats have shown that as many as eight out of every ten exhibit some degree of polydactylism, while polydactyls occurs in less than one percent of cat populations else where.  A dominant genetic trait that Todd estimates originated around 1680 within 50 miles of Boston , polydactylism can be used to trace the migration of New Englanders into Canada during the American Revolution.   At that time families from the 13 Colonies who were unsympathetic to the rebel cause moved north to the Maritime Provinces .  New Englanders packed up their belongings including their cats and headed to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (Canada), while Colonists from the Mid-Atlantic area settled on Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island” The survey found many more polydactyl cats in Halifax and Nova Scotia area.  The article also noted that “their socio-scientific significance, these mittened kittens have won the affection of many New Englanders who consider them lucky and are intrigued by their oversized feet.”   

  According to Eloise M. Jordan in the Lewiston Journal ( Lewiston , Maine ) January 8, 1966 “Coon Cats are as native to the State of Maine as is a hill of potatoes.”…The article also noted that “cat shows were held in Maine from 1860 to 1870 when Coon Cats were the prized specimens… The Maine coast is a cat’s paradise.  People respect them.  Coon Cats inhabit the fish houses, seem to go with sea captains.  When the fishing smacks nose in to the dock they’re waiting among the bayberry bushes.  Toss out a mackerel.  Pink noses twitch hungerly, growls rumble in silky throats, paws thrust out wickedly.  The fish disappears.”

  In December of 1977, Maine Life had an article by Virginia C. Holmgren titled “Those Mysterious Maine Coon Cats”.  She stated “Maine Coon Cats have been growing in popularity as household pets ever since they first came to official recognition as a distinct breed in Bangor, Boston, New Your and Philadelphia back in the 1880s.  The mystery of their origin has been growing, too, swelled to formidable proportion by tales of myth and marvel…Also, there seems to be no published record of when, why or by whom the label “Coon Cats” was first applied…So there is really no unsolvable mystery about how such unusual cats might have arrived—only details lacing as to when and where.  Even one or two strong-gened cats could have established the breed without any planning by interfering humans, for village folk didn’t move around much in those days and repeated inbreeding would have been unavoidable, preserving the dominant features as nature took its course.”

In the Dec 24, 1940 issue, Mrs. E Rutherford Brown of New York City replied to the comments made by L P Evans, editor of the Piscataquis Observer, published in the Dec 3, 1940 issue of The Courier-Gazetter.    Brown noted that the “Maine Coon Cat is distinctly a local product—and Maine can be as proud of it as Georgia can be of its peaches.  In fact, it is so highly a local product, that it leads a sad life and untimely death when exported out of Maine … The Maine Coon Cat is so unusual that a special committee has been formed to study its background and protect its interests by broadcasting facts.  This committee was formed because too many Maine Coon Cats, exported from Maine by tourists, have become savage within a few months after arriving in New York and other large cities and have been sent to SPCA to be destroyed.  One reason is they require their natural freedom: and another that city noises drive them half mad…The modern Maine Coon Cat is a lovely pet if given its freedom, in a quiet home…  For many years the origin of the Maine Coon Cat was a mystery --until the article in the Christian Science Monitor identifying it in the same classification as the Manx cat, Siamese, Burmese and Abyssinian.  Then the stories of shippers being responsible for Manx cats being brought to “ Isle of Man ” from S E Asia feline region cleared the way for shipmen carrying the Maine Coon Cat to Maine from South East Asia .”

The above quotes and references give the general attitude of the local Mainers from the great state of Maine .  This author's birth place.