Mr. Michael The Maine Coon Cat

Mr. Michael The Maine Coon Cat, or Michael as he is known for short, is my cat of five years.  I rescued him from a kitty mill.  He was near death when I found him.  The vet warned me against buying him, but I did anyway, and I nursed him back to health.  He has been my constant companion ever since.

Maine Coon cats are very social creatures.  They follow you around wherever you go.  They want to be part of the family.  In some ways they are more like dogs then cats (perish the thought!).  At any rate, they are not aloof like a lot of cats.  They are extremely friendly.  And they are the most intelligent of all the cats because they have the biggest brains (and the largest bodies also - the males often grow to be 18 pounds and are still not overweight!).  It is said that they have the intelligence of a two to three year old child.  

That is my Michael!  Social and intelligent!  He follows me around everywhere.  He wants to be with me.  He doesn't like when I leave and wants me to be back soon.  (Does sound like a dog, doesn't he?!)  He likes to sleep with me.  He gets jealous if my boyfriend comes over and sits on the couch and spends time with me. 

Michael knows a lot of English.  He performs a lot of commands.  Often John and I will have to spell so he doesn't know what we are talking about!  He also loves to play.  One of his favorite games is fetch.  If you throw him and object that is small enough for him to fit in his mouth, he will retrieve it!  And he absolutely love tub hockey.  He takes the object and jumps into the tub with it, and bats it around the tub, trying to score points it seems. 

He seems to always be jumping in that tub.  Because he loves water (as do all Maine Coons).  He tries to drink any leaks that come out of the spiget or lick any water off the floor of the tub.  And then he does something that is really disgusting, he drinks out of the toilet.  I can't figure it out, because he ALWAYS has a fresh bowl of water.  John and I are always saying "Michael, have you been swimming in the toilet again?"  And he loves to dump his water bowl over, so he can drink the water as it flows onto the ground, because he loves flowing water, and because he loves to drink water off the floor.  So I had to get one of those bowls that was made in a way that wouldn't spill.  It was really hard to find, it was heavy and in a funky shape.  

Michael is a beautiful cat.  Maine Coons get their names because they look striped like racoons.  He is a beautiful long haired brown tabby with stripes on his body and his big bushy tail.  He has a large beautiful face with a big M on it (as do most Maine Coons).  He sports a beautiful mane around his neck (that is a Maine Coon thing also), especially in winter.  He has a beautiful voice.  He coos and says "gung"  instead of meowing.  Yes, a common Maine Coon trait.  And he weighs 21 lbs.  And yes, he is overweight, and yes I am bad, I give him table scraps.  When he keeps me company when I am sick, looking over me worried, or keeps me warm in the wintertime, or fusses over me in the many ways he does, how could I not give him food, when he looks at me with those sad kittycat eyes?  

Let's see, in closing, some of the funniest things he has ever done:  in watching my boyfriend write with a pencil, he has put a pencil between his paws and tried to write, he has tried to type on the computer after watching me, and yes, once actually dialed up the internet (yes, I am sure it was an accident!), and after watching John do the dishes, once he got up on the chair and stuck his paw in the dishwater and swished it around as if trying to wash dishes.  All of these are true stories!  Speaking of paws, if I say "paw", he will hold paws with me.  He will put his paw on my foot.  It is like we are holding hands.  He often does this when I don't say "paw".  He just comes over and puts his paw on my foot for about five minutes to hold paws with me!  It is so sweet.  With John it is different.  With John he wants to play a game; he comes over and bites John's foot!  He also does this when he is mad at John!  But he would NEVER bite me.  Even when I have to brush him, which is sometimes everyday.

Enough already!