None of mine came with papers and most of them were what is called DSH or DLH; Domestic Short Hair or Domestic Long Hair. Aka; Mutt. My first guy was a beautifully shaped black shorthair from the shelter. When he needed a playmate, a stray had showed up at a friend's and I took her to live with me. She was probably the ugliest shorthair I'd ever seen; very out of proportion. Then one day I looked at her and realized that she wasn't an ugly shorthair, she was a Siamese with the wrong paintjob. She had a very Oriental build and voice, and a little bit of the Oriental personality. Later, when I was doing TNR, the first cat I trapped looked exactly like an Oriental Shorthair (a breed that looks like a Siamese but without the colorpoints). This girl had grey tabby coloring, but everything else was pure Oriental! They can be very possessive of their people, and this girl didn't want to share me with my other cats. I found her another home where she settled in as Queen of the House. One of my current cats strongly resembles a Maine Coon. They are known for being very large and very mellow. Main Coons are known as the Gentle Giants. Magic qualifies on both counts. He also has the strong squared muzzle and huge feet common to the breed. I also took in a pregnant teenage foster. She was all black and at first I thought she might be part Siamese. She gave birth to two black and white fluff-balls. She was apparently carrying the recessive longhair gene. When she started getting enough food, she filled out a bit and I realized she more closely resembled the slightly stocky build of a Persian, and though she was a short hair it grew in soft and plush. Her daughters grew Persian-like coats and had round heads with slightly shortened muzzles like an old fashioned Persian. There was obviously some Persian on both sides of that family tree!
Think of a Siamese. It has a lanky, slender build. with a longer face and large ears. They have a very harsh voice, a tendancy to talk a lot, and they get very attached to their chosen person. An Oriental Shorthair is a Siamese without the color-point markings. It is a quirk of cat genetics that a pure Siamese that mates with a cat with no siamese will usually have solid black kittens. Many (but not all) black cats will have some Siamese ancestry. Color-point markings are recesive, and can show up down the line if two part siamese get together. My second cat, Tayla, was black with some white on her. If you looked at her like a domestic shorthair, her hear was too big for her body, her ears too big for her head, and she was Roman-nosed. She had a sleek close-lying coat, and a slender tail. In other words, she had the body of a Siamese. She also had a voice that sounded like you left her out in the rain and it rusted. She did NOT have the tendency for conversation, thank goodness! The Oriental Shorthair type that I trapped looked exactly like a Siamese except with grey tiger stripes all over. She had a slightly strident voice, she loved to talk to me, and she claimed me as her own.
I have three. None are "pure" breeds, or at least I can't be sure. As much as I have wanted to, I can't bring myself to buy a pure bred cat with the number of them that need a home already. One is a Maine coon, to the tee. I would bet if she were judged by an educated CFA judge, she would qualify. I don't know her exact age, at least 13. And she has lost a bit of weight, she's "down to" 26lbs last I checked. She can reach my chest with her front legs when she stands up and stretches out. There is one I have which I call a tonkinese. I have no real idea. He is pointed, a deep chocolate point. A bit stockier than a typical Siamese. And he changes colour over time. I'll have to dig up some pictures. He gets darker and lighter, which is a common characteristic of tonkinese. But he could be a mix of anything, an SPCA pick up. Then we have a sleek, jet black, male. He is the hunter of the house. A standard DSH I would guess.
That's a BIG girl you have! I wonder some times if my guy Magic is a non-show quality purebred, or maybe a mix; he just showed up in my yard one day. He lacks the ear tufts of a Maine Coon and he's a bit small at 16 pounds. But he has the other traits. And I don't care if he's purebred or not, he's lovable.
(04-28-2012, 06:50 PM)Karenskatz Wrote: That's a BIG girl you have! I wonder some times if my guy Magic is a non-show quality purebred, or maybe a mix; he just showed up in my yard one day. He lacks the ear tufts of a Maine Coon and he's a bit small at 16 pounds. But he has the other traits. And I don't care if he's purebred or not, he's lovable.
My girl has the eartufts, paws, golden/copper eyes, etc... The only thing I have read about Maine coon's that seems off is the females are supposed max out around 16 lbs, the males are supposed to be the big/long ones. She is around 30" body, not including the tail. She is a pretty tortoise/tabby type pattern. This is an older pic of her. I might try to get a few new pics later, I am going to give her a bath today, poor old girl can't quite clean the long fur on her back as well as she used to. I really don't care if she is a purebred anything or not either, she is my baby.
Nice picture. She looks quite big in this photo. Many people don't care about the breeds, while some do. I guess everyone is different, which makes the world less boring.
How are you going to bath the cat? In a tub? Will she give you trouble for making her wet?
She's certainly a pretty girl. As for the size, that might have been typical for the breed originally, but you know what happens when show people get ahold of a bred. Maine Coons are known for their size, so the show cats are bred to be big. I've seen a purebred male at shows around here that is HUGE! I would guess over 30 pounds and all muscle. He's an orange tabby, by the way. They breed for all colors, though brown tabby is typicly what we think of, and probably what many of the natural Maine Coons were. My guy is solid black. By the way, in cat show terms the tortise/tabby pattern is refered to as "torbie", and like calaico and tortiseshell it will almost always be female.
(04-29-2012, 12:21 PM)Ram8349 Wrote: Nice picture. She looks quite big in this photo. Many people don't care about the breeds, while some do. I guess everyone is different, which makes the world less boring.
How are you going to bath the cat? In a tub? Will she give you trouble for making her wet?
I get about 8-10 minutes of cooperation. So that is the time frame I have to work with before she is over it. I do it in my tub here, but the best thing I have seen is to use a utility type sink, or a laundry sink, that is the easiest way if you have one.
I do like certain breeds, but as I said, I have yet to get a cat from a breeder, there are too many around that need a home anyways, and if you go through shelters, at least here, you can normally find cats that are at least similar to any breed you may want anyways.
I have seen a few pictures of huge orange tabby Maine coons, there was one a while back of a little girl trying to hold one that was bigger than she was.
04-30-2012, 05:07 PM, (This post was last modified: 04-30-2012, 05:10 PM by Karenskatz.)
Yes, bathing a cat can be an interesting project. When I look at your girl, I think of how hard it is to get the water all the way down to the skin through that thick long coat. That would take me the whole ten minutes, LOL! For bathing my first cat, I left his nylon harness on him and used it as a hand hold. He got a good grip on the far side of the laundry tub and wailed like a banshe telling the whole world I was torturing him, but as long as I held onto that harness he wasn't going anywhere. My second cat was harder. She would crouch in the bottom of the tub quietly, and just when you thought everything was fine she would turn into a bucking bronco and try to back out of the harness. Later, I found that if I reached around them from the back and got a good grip on the upper part of their front legs, then lift up so they had to stand on their back legs, and that worked pretty well. If that doesn't work I get a good grip on the scruff of their neck and that generally gets them to hold still.
I just have three loved dsh moggies.Stumpy is a tabby white mix with a stump for her tail,Cornelious or Corny for short is a beautiful sleek lady tabby who loves to bunt and drool on you and then.........there is George aka Boris nicknamed after the Russsian Boris Yeltsin.George is a rather large garfield who is a grey tabby that no matter what I do never seems to loose the weight.George weighs roughly 8kgs which is heavy but at least he has no known health issues to date.I do worry about george though as he gets older with the vet just telling me he will always be a rather large cat no matter what reduced calorie food I feed him.These are my current cats and as we all know we live to serve cats lol
I don't know what my cat is, mixed something or other. He was a stray born outside our house so who knows. It doesn't matter to us what he is, we love him anyway.
I have three cats. One is a DSH, a big orange tabby with a very sweet disposition.
Another is a purebred Bengal. She is high strung, has a very unique raspy voice, moves like a wild cat, likes water, loves to fetch and even barks like a dog at times. Bengals are supposed to be friendly and affectionate, but mine is rather aloof, though she will cuddle somewhat with me sometimes.
The other cat is a purebred Tonkinese. He's a real pistol. He has two distinct personalities. He's the most cuddly, affectionate, sweetest cat who wants lots of kisses and undivided attention from all his "subjects". He likes being picked up and carried around, will even jump up onto my chest or into my arms if I don't bend down to pick him up. Then he's also the devil cat that has nasty temper tantrums, attacks the other cats unmercifully, destroys rooms and decor, etc.
Aren't cats great?! :-)
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