Of the three books that I purchased on the subject of owning a Maine Coon Cat. This book has the most spectular pictures of these breathtaking animals. The photographer did an outstandling job to catching the image and personality of each animals.
"Guide to Owning a Maine Coon Cat" starts out strong with a detailed exposition of the various Maine Coon origin theories: the 'Marie Antoinette'; the 'Viking'; the 'Racoon cross'; the 'Lynx cross', among others (I favor the 'Viking' since Maine Coons and Norwegian Forest Cats look an awful lot alike).
The author then spends a good deal of print on the Maine Coon personality and the breed standard and colors. The photographs are beautiful, professional and in color.
It's when we get to the chapters on care, grooming, and feeding that this book strays away from Maine Coons and becomes generic and uninteresting. The photographs deteriorate into advertisements for various grooming and food products. Some show the covers of other books from the same firm that published this book, i.e. T.F.H. Publications, Inc.
Go ahead and buy this book, but buy it for the first 38 pages.
Very glitzy pictures of the many faces of Maine Coon cats.
The basic content of this book is generic to all cats, but what sets it apart from others is the very high quality of its pictures.
The reader can get a very good idea of all the background, behavioral characteristics as well as colors and patterns without a lot of further research. Easy reading for the new MC owner but not as complete as "That Yankee Cat," or "This is the Maine Coon Cat."
Very glitzy pictures of the many faces of Maine Coon cats.
The basic content of this book is generic to all cats, but what sets it apart from others is the very high quality of its pictures.
The reader can get a very good idea of all the background, behavioral characteristics as well as colors and patterns without a lot of further research. Easy reading for the new MC owner but not as complete as "That Yankee Cat," or "This is the Maine Coon Cat."
Half-baked Book
The first half of this book is very good detailing the Maine Coon breed, history and standards. Wonderful photos. The second half fails miserably. It is too generic. It does not go into specific details about this particular breed. It just gives the general feeding and caring patterns which are similar to other cats and other books that I have read. It does not tell you what the ideal weight should be, etc. Another area that it fails is to tell you about a specific hereditary trait which I found out about on the internet: hip dysplasia. So only two stars for this book.
