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I'm not very good at the convention of accepted wisdoms – when presented with someone saying, "That's just how it is", my first thought is an, "Er, why?", closely followed by a, "So prove it". It's a thing of mine. And I'm no different here with my cats than with anything else I do. So when I was told that the Maine Coon was descended, by more or less probable routes, from ships' cats and/or those of the early European settlers' of New England, the evolutionary biologist in me sat up and took notice. Which led, as these things do, to a deal of thought, research and some sort of attempt to disentangle speculation from knowledge and fantasy from fact, to actually start creating an evidence-based story of how the Maine Coon came about. As you've already worked out from the title, I've tentatively come down on the side of the Vikings – that it was likely to have been their expeditions to North America from the Greenland colonies that brought the prototype Maine Coons to the New World, and that they then spent the next few hundred years chilling out in splendid isolation from humanity (I've seen no evidence that Native American's of the time kept cats), until such time as they encountered the European settlers heading inland and Northwards and realised that here were a bunch of gullible suckers whose food and warmth were to be taken full advantage of – some things don't change. That's the nutshell explanation – postings here will detail my researches, thinking and correspondence on the subject.

If you've any questions, queries or further information, please either or comment on any of the entries.

Thanks,
Richard