Conference misery::feline_v1

1383.0. "THE MYTHS LIVE ON" by INABOX::BENHAM () Thu May 19 1988 12:25

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                              THE SCRATCH SHEET
     
                 MAINE COON BREEDERS AND FANCIERS ASSOCIATION
     
     
                            THE OLD MYTHS LIVE ON
     
     
     The following question appeared in Dr. Frank Miller's column, "The 
     Wonderful World of Animals," in the July 4, 1970 edition of the 
     Washington Post. (Misspellings of "Maine Coon Cat" are copied 
     directly from the column).  
     
     "DEAR DR. MILLER:  Maggie is my Main Coon cat.  I know she gets her    
     name from the fact she has raccoons in her ancestry, so I have been 
     anxious to breed her directly to a raccoon because I want to see how 
     much the young look like her.  I finally found someone who has a 
     male raccoon, Bandy.  When Maggie came into her next heat we took 
     her over to Bandy.  It didn't work out.  She was scared to death of 
     him and so he got mad and started to chase her all over the place.  
     She hasn't been in heat since then, I think he scared it out of her.  
     If she ever does come in again, is there any way I can give them 
     tranquilizers to calm them down enough so they won't fight?  Is 
     there any other secret way to get these two to mate without getting 
     so mad at each other?  Please let me know what to do."
     
     Dr. Miller kindly pointed out that, while she would probably recover 
     from the shock and cycle again, Maggie was absolutely right in 
     rejecting Bandy.  He stated, "Even a Main Coon cat is still a cat -- 
     not a coon.  Nor would there be any raccoons in her background...The 
     wildest possible type of outbreeding is the cross of two species.  A 
     cat and a raccoon are much further apart than this (romantically and 
     otherwise).  They do not even belong to the same family of animals."
     
     We can only hope that Maggie was spayed soon after her ordeal!
     

    I swear some people have mush for brains and lots of extra space
    between their ears.