Reply #30: they look like my mom's.

[Maine-ah]

both of her boys are great with my 2 y.o. too. Very lovey, friendly kitties.

It is unknown how and when the Maine Coon first came to the United States.<3> There are only theories and folktales. One such folktale includes that of Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France, who was executed in 1793. Before her death, Antoinette attempted to escape France with the help of Captain Samuel Clough. She loaded Clough's ship with her most prized possessions, including six of her favorite long-haired cats. While Antoinette did not make it to the United States, her pets safely reached the shores of Wiscasset, Maine, where they bred with other short-haired breeds and evolved into the modern breed of the Maine Coon.<4>

Another folktale involves that of Captain Charles Coon, who kept a mass amount of long-haired cats aboard his ship to keep the rodent population under control. Whenever Coon's ship would anchor in the New England ports, the felines would exit the ship and mate with the local feral cat population, returning to the ship and giving birth months later. These new cats were named "Coon's cats". Like the Marie Antoinette fable, this story is highly unlikely and not much evidence has been found to support it, but the Maine State Library has a listing of a captain by the name of Coon.<5>

A theory which is biologically-based, albeit impossible, is the idea that the modern Maine Coon descended from ancestors of semi-feral domestic cats and raccoons. This could have possibly explained the most common color of the breed (brown tabby) and the bushy tail, which is a characteristic trait. Another idea is that the Maine Coon originated between the matings of domestic cats and wild bobcats, which could explain the tufts of hairs that are so commonly seen on the tips of the ears.<6> There have been reports of domestic cats breeding with bobcats.<7>

Many breeders believe that the Maine Coon is descended from the pairings of local short-haired domestic cats and long-haired breeds brought overseas by English seafarers (possibly by Captain Charles Coon) or 11th-century Vikings.<6> The connection to the Vikings is noted through the strong resemblance of the Maine Coon to that of the Norwegian Forest Cat, another breed which is said to be descendents of cats that traveled with the Vikings.<8>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine_Coon