Cat Show
There's a cat show happening near us this weekend, so I took the kids yesterday. It was held in the gym of a local school.
It was interesting. There were a few vendors there selling cat toys and supplies, but most of the people who had set up shop were cat breeders who were there to have their animals judged. There were a large number of breeders there who specalized in bengals, himalyans and persians, and our favorites, maine coons.
Bob's decided he loves scottish folds -- they're round-headed, big-eyed cats with folded-down ears. Very cute, if a bit eerie looking.
The maine coons we saw were magnificent creatures. Bonnie and I were astounded by their size, however, and we're pretty familiar with the breed. Full-grown maine coons can easily tip the scales at 20 pounds without an ounce of fat on them -- definitely at the high end of the scale for domestic cats. The domestic cat equivalent of the newfoundland or the great dane.
They're hardy farm cats from Maine -- semi-longhaired cats with beautiful features, and coats that come in just about every conceivable variation except the seal-point (white with black tips) you see on Siamese and Persians. The "traditional" maine coon has a brown mackerel tabby coat, and that's what our current cat and our previous cat had.
We have a maine coon, and he's a very big cat -- between 16 and 17 pounds. I admit he's pudgy; at his fighting weight he'd be more like 14 pounds. That's still big as far as cats go, but compared to some of these champion maine coons, Max looks puny. There was one monster named Walrus who was 11 months old and was already 18 pounds -- he'll easily be well over 20 pounds when he stops growing. And he had at least five or six inches on Max's length, too. Watching people pick him up and carry him around was comical -- he was the size of a toddler. Being a maine coon, though, he was incredibly gentle and quiet.
We talked with one breeder who was showing off kittens sired by a male who weighed 24 pounds.