Saturday is Caturday! The Maine Coon: Cat, Myth, Landlord. Post Your Kitties, Cat Memes, Videos, or Anything Kitty Cat!

There are cats, and then there are Maine Coons. A regular cat loafs on the couch and ignores you. A Maine Coon walks into the room like it owns the property and is checking whether you paid rent. They’re not pets so much as hairy roommates with boundary issues.

Nobody really knows where they came from. The sensible answer is New England barns and cold winters. But sensible answers are dull, so folklore insists on better ones: that they’re Viking ship cats, or half raccoon, or descended from Marie Antoinette’s secret French escape cats. Science disagrees, but science has never looked a Maine Coon in the eye. If you’ve ever stared into that shaggy face and thought, “This animal could have pillaged a coastline,” you understand why the legends persist.

Their size is half the story. Normal cats hover around ten pounds. Maine Coons double it without blinking. They stretch across couches like a bad Airbnb guest. Their tails look stolen from raccoons, their paws look designed for snowshoeing, and when you hold one up for a photo, you don’t look like a proud owner — you look like a hostage who has agreed to pose.

The other half of the story is their face. Maine Coons look like they’ve seen things. Their eyes suggest mischief, judgment, or a plan you’re not invited to. Give them five minutes and they’ll open a cabinet, knock something expensive over, and then chirp at you like they’re narrating the crime.

And yes, they chirp. They don’t meow like normal cats. They trill, chirrup, and produce sounds that suggest alien transmissions. Combine that with the way they follow you around and you start to feel less like an owner and more like a human experiment being monitored by a large, furry scientist.

They’re called “dog-like” because they fetch, greet, and shadow their people from room to room. But let’s be clear: they are not obedient. They’re curious, clever, and full of opinions. A bored Maine Coon is a demolition project waiting to happen. If a normal cat is an aloof roommate, a Maine Coon is the roommate who raids your fridge, hosts a poker night without asking, and then convinces you it was your idea.

The paradox is that all this chaos comes wrapped in one of the gentlest cat temperaments around. They’re playful without being vicious, social without being needy, and oddly diplomatic with kids and other pets. For all their lynx cosplay and linebacker size, they’re good-natured. Mischievous, yes. Scheming, certainly. But the kind of scheming you can live with.

A Maine Coon is for people who want a cat with presence — something between a pet and a household deity. Ordinary cats are fine. But a Maine Coon? That’s a legend shedding on your furniture, chirping at your appliances, and reminding you daily that you are not the one in charge here.