Cat item of the day

The late writer Sir John Keenan didn't just write about war, but he also was famous among cat lovers for his articles that mention his Maine Coon Cat.

Factoid of the day: The Maine Coon Cat is the only cat breed that originated in the Americas.

Either it jumped ship from the early settlers, was sent there by Marie Antoinette, or was left behind by the Vikings when the local AmerIndians kicked them out.

The presence of several genetically related diseases in these cats suggest interbreeding in the past, although now most of the pure breeds are rare since cats do tend to be "tom cats" in their love life.

WickedYankee has a nice essay about the breed's history.

An article on LuckystarsCattery says it was the Vikings

In an attempt to trace the genetic origins of the singular Maine Coon Cat, scientists subjected it to DNA testing last year for the first time. The results were as clear as they were surprising: The Maine Coon is the direct descendant of an unknown, domestic breed that went extinct within the last few centuries and the skaugkatt, or "Norwegian Forest Cat," brought to our continent from Scandinavia 1,000 years ago. AS the Website for the Cat Fanciers' Association explains, "These are the cats that explored the world with the Vikings, protecting the grain stores on land and sea, and are believed to have left their progeny on the shores of North America, as a legacy to the future. Is their Norse name accurate? Yes, the skaugkatt, meaning 'forest cat,' really did come out of the Scandinavian forests in the last 4,000 years."

Of course, this might not be descended from the Vikings (who after all settled far north of Maine) but it might have jumped ship from a fishing ship: The Norse (and probably the Basque) etc were know to have fished for cod off the coast of North America before Columbus ever lost his way to Asia and found the Bahamas. Like most ships, they would have had cats on board to control vermin.

More here:
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