"helping"

Maine Coons love to help. They are such a thoughtful breed always looking for opportunities to make life easier for you! Marshall and Zelda love to "help" me tie my shoe laces and here they are in action!

Zelda

Just Zelda!

Marshall and zelda update

Marshall and zelda both had their visits to the vet, good news all round Marshall's heart is 100% normal and Zelda's post op check up shows that everything is healing well, just the muscle is a little swollen in the area but will go down eventually! So relieved and happy that both are doing well and we have no major concerns!

Unfortunately this post also comes with sad news as I found out that zeldas mum, Kendra, sadly passed away yesterday. It was out of the blue and a shock to all of us. Kendra was a beautiful silver tortie with the most amazing temperament and she will be greatly missed.

I also had a mini cat adventure today! I am on the committee for the Ulster Siamese and all Breed Cat Club, our next show is on the 2nd of November, so today we went to the new venue to take some photos for publicity and to present a cheque to the children's hospice. Shadow my breeders Maine coon came along to and the public were just amazed by him, he also totally loved the attention! 

The Fur

Marshall has a thick coat, he's neutered so his coat doesn't drop in the summer time. Unfortunately this means that if we are lucky to get nice weather its a big pain for marshall as he gets too hot.

This summer we had a heatwave, its also my first summer with Marshall as a big boy ( last summer he was a fuzzy kitten). The heat has played havoc on poor Marshmallow and tomorrow we will be visiting the vets to have his armpits, belly and trousers shaved down as they have some major matts in them. This also means we will be missing the september show as he will be so bald underneath ( we hope we can still make the Ulster Siamese and all Breed show in November though!)

A Maine Coon's coat consists of a fluffy undercoat and a longer, heavier but silky top coat. Its the undercoat that causes the bother! Its like cotton wool and so soft and fluffy, but with regular movement and the heat it just matts up. I brush Marshall and Zelda everyday to help get rid of the loose hair but I think from now on we will be getting summer haircuts to help as little me on my own against a huge cat its pretty impossible to cut them out myself.

Marshall will also be going for a heart Xray tomorrow. Just over a week ago I came home to a very quiet and pathetic looking Marshmallow who had been sick in the hallway. He curled up under the living room table and wouldn't move, he didn't even want cuddles which is totally unheard of for my boy.

Eventually he came up for cuddles but he was trembling so much and breathing really heavily and fast. A trip to the out of hours vets confirmed that he wasn't doing too good and they gave him some shots to stop the nausea and some antibiotics to fight any bugs and calm his temperature. The next day we went to our normal vet who checked him over and put him on a two week antibiotic to help his temperature and general miserableness. Thankfully Marshall has totally picked up but both vets were concerned with his heart rate. Maine Coons can suffer from heart problems and in his blood line there have been a few issues with hearts so and Xray tomorrow will see if there is anything we need to be concerned about.

Zelda will also be going to the vet on friday for her post spaying check up. The opp hasn't phased her at all, she's actually even more mental than she was before! the area is a little swollen but that is to be expected. Yesterday and today she has finally taken some rest time and even come for snuggles!

Maine Coons and their Water bowls

Maine Coons are totally in their own world and they do things that are quite peculiar! One big trait/quirk is the obsession with and playing with the food/water bowls.

I found a very funny list on another blog which I just have to share as Marshall and Zelda pretty much do all of these!

Let's see, there is:

1. Pawing at the floor while drinking
2. Dipping a front paw in the water bowl, then cupping the water out to drink from said paw
3. Pawing in the food bowl to knock, or pick, several pieces of food out then eating each one individually, either off the floor, or by picking each piece up and placing in mouth
4. Placing toys (glitter balls, mice, etc.) in the water bowl
5. Picking a piece of dry food out of its bowl, then placing, with paw, into water bowl, stir for a minute with paw to soften, then pick softened piece out of water bowl and place, with paw, in mouth
6. Not liking the nutritious, therefore less tasty, canned food and expressing this dislike by carefully pulling and folding whatever rug or towel the food bowl is sitting on (see #7) over the bowl containing the offending comestible, so that it is completely covered, then stomping the fabric down into the food as completely as possible
7. Removing bits of canned food from bowl (as in #3), and either eating from floor, or "killing" said chunk of food, properly smearing same in all directions, giving a clue to stupid human to place some sort of "fabric" device under said bowl to prevent "roaming" of food and/or bowl (see #8)
8. Taking paw and dragging, usually in a rapid, jerking manner, water bowl (even heavy crockery bowls) so as to cause water to splash from bowl onto floor, then taking paw and evenly distributing water over floor in multiple directions until water is spread as thinly as possible, then....
9. Jumping up onto nearest piece of furniture or counter and, taking great care to "stretch", as far as possible, the remaining water on paws, leaving a trail of wet paw prints for a distance of not less than twenty times their body length (Note: Young kittens are carefully taught this "stretching" technique through numerous observation sessions conducted by the adults)
10. Sitting in kitchen or bathroom sink(s), usually already wet, attempting to drink from spout, some individuals learn to turn on faucets so as to gain access to greater amounts of "spreadable" water
11. Some individuals will jump down from counter above water bowls to: a) pounce into bowl with front paws so others may witness resultant splash, or b) scare the daylights out of another individual who is concentrating on water in bowl, thus resulting in both, or multiple Maine Coons, fleeing the area in great haste, usually "spinning out" on fabric containment device under said bowls, causing copious amounts of liquid to be displaced from bowls so that the "spreading squad" may return a short time later to perform their duties
12. Advising human companions of the less than satisfactory amount of water in bowl by standing on edge of bowl with both front paws, placing sufficient amount of weight on edge of bowl so as to cause bowl to flip over dispensing "insufficient" amount of water on floor
13. Jumping up onto counters and/or tables to dislodge important notes, papers and/or other possessions important to human companions, then placing same in water bowl, being certain to push said item down into water multiple times

Thus concludes Itemization List Number One, of Maine Coon behavior pertaining to water and/or food bowls and contents.
Respectfully Submitted,
John Hitzeman
Acadiacoons

original list can be found on http://barb.velvet.com/anhumor/mcwater.html

Welcome

I decided to start a blog for my two Maine Coon kitties. There are never enough cats on the Internet!! 

Say hello to Mr Marshall Bravestarr and Miss Zelda. 

So that you can get a feel for how these two are, Simons cat sums it up perfectly