User talk:4coons~enwiktionary

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Maine Coon
I have reverted your edits on this page. However, I am open to conversation on this. What do you mean by, "specifically native to the state of Maine?" If you are simply stating that the cat originated in Maine, then this is a redundant statement. I have a hard time believing that the breed is currently solely found in the state of Maine. So, I guess I'm confused by what you're trying to assert here. -Atelaes λάλει ἐμοί 00:10, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

Meaning and clarifications
The present wiktionary definition of Maine Coon is seriously flawed. The wording "was developed" is confusion and seriously misleading. The meanings and clarifications requested are given in the following sections.

Specifically native to the state of Maine
Maine is where the breed developed - in Maine - the place of its origin. Native means: occurring in nature, having origins in a particular area.

"Specifically native to Maine" means: having origin in Maine - being the place of origin.

Maine is the origin of this breed. "Maine" is part of this cat's name. This is for a reason: Maine is its origin and where it developed - not more broadly in "America" or in "New England" - just specifically Maine.

"was developed" wording is confusion
The wording "was developed" is confusion and seriously misleading.

The Maine cat developed naturally, out-doors, in the wild, in Maine. Maine is the origin.

Maine is where it developed naturally in local isolation where it was free from external dilution.

It is improper to say that the Maine cat "was developed" with the mistaken implication that the origin of the coon-cat breed was intentionally breed and selectively manipulated by people. They were not. They developed naturally, out-doors in the wild long before they appeared anywhere outside of Maine.

Native Maine Coon Cat
The Maine cat was recognized as a distinct breed of cat long ago and known as the "coon-cat" in the mid 17th century prior to the Civil War in recorded history and documented early descriptions of the Maine cat by a well known and celebrated Maine author who lived in that era prior to 1850.

The genetic base of the Maine cat was well established in Maine by the late 16th century long before there were any pedigrees, cat breeders, registries, cat clubs or even many people for that matter. In fact there were many more cats than people in rural areas. We remember back in the early 40's that there were about sixty wild cats on our remote farm (four miles from the nearest town) - so many that they were difficult to count. They were seldom seen in day-time but their eyes would all reflect/glare back at the lantern at once after dark from under the barns, chicken coops, and sheds. This occurred long before there were any roads, automobiles, or oil when people rarely traveled further than a horse could take them in a day.

The Maine cats changed little after the demise of the shipping industry so those that were found there before the Civil war can safely be called natives. The Maine Cat developed without interference by people in the small isolated gene pool in which their heritage with local cats was not diluted by other ordinary domestic cats as would have occurred in cities where there were many other cat breeds around.

A journal article was published about the coon-cat of the late 17th century stating: "... all of them come from Maine, simply for the reason that the breed is peculiar as yet to that State.” “Coon-cats have been recognized as a distinct breed in Maine for so long that the memory of the oldest inhabitant runs back to their beginning.” “You will find them in almost any village in that part of the world.”

Modern Cats
About two centuries after the breed was well-established and its characteristics well-defined in Maine, they were exported to other areas as pure, unadulterated, native coon-cats.

Offspring of these cats from Maine can now be found all over the world. In the 1970's the coon-cat became part of today's cat fancy and since then is being breed by experienced and inexperienced people everywhere. The "modern look" coon-cat of today has characteristics and features that are changed somewhat from the original, specifically native MAINE Coon Cat.

Specifically native Maine origin Maine Coon Cats still exist and are essential to the health and survival of the breed.

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called 4coons. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name 4coons~enwiktionary that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:34, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 06:53, 21 April 2015 (UTC)