Conference misery::feline

    
    If you check the Maine Coon descriptions on the Web, they also state
    the maine coons prefer staying low to the ground. We have a pure 
    100% male and a semi coon female. The female jumps as high as our
    other cat. But the male needs other object to get himself to a point.
    To jump on the window sill, he gets on the couch and then jumps to the 
    window, in our bedroom he uses the bed to jump to the window. That just
    the way it is for them.  As a matter of fact, he chases our other
    female cat a lot and she runs for a high object usually my dresser
    she knows she is safe there cause Tomba could never jump that high. 
    A lot of time he chases this one girl away from the dry food bowl 
    that is left in our bedroom for them to free feed while we're gone
    we noticed Ziba never gets a chance at it. So now we have another bowl
    on my dresser, she jumps up there and muches as Tomba pittyfully 
    stares up at her ;-)
    If you want to save your wall paper, leave a stool or something for 
    him to help him get at the window. 
    
    Shaw
    

    I agree with .1 I have three girls that can jump as high as any cat
    I've seen.  My one boy ( 9 months ) can jump pretty good when chasing
    the girls, but Max won't jump any more than he has to. It might also be
    he's so big he can't jump any more ( 22+ lbs). They are all Maine
    Coons.
    
    Dennis

    OK, I did a search and have read the note on Maine coons.  It told me a
    whole lot more than I expected, thanks!  Now the qualifier here is that
    I have been told by a friend, who has only seen his picture (the same
    picture is here on my wall for anyone in the vicinity of MR02-3/B2)
    that he is a "coon kitty".  Black and white fluffball as far as I'm
    concerned.  
    
    One thing that seems to keep creeping up, the *males* are big, He
    isn't!  I would venture to guess he's in the =/- 12 pound range, but he
    *is* "bottom heavy!  Most of his weight is in what we call "the
    tubby-tummy"  and he eats, but aparently not as much as some people
    have talked about.
    
    Oh, he insists that his place to sleep is on top of, or right beside my 
    head, and MUST be on my pillow.  Is this a normal trait?
    
    So what do I do with my bottom heavy wallpaper shredder?!?!?!
    
    Lyn

    
    Lyn, if the wall paper shreding is solely to jump up to things, 
         then easy, just provide a stool,box or something to make the 
         jump easier on him.  If his shreding is due to the need for 
         scratching and trimming his nails, then there are many variations
         on scratchers. Our boy prefers the ones that are either flat on
         the ground or at an angle, not straight up. We sprinkled a little
         catnip on them at first, so now her prefers them to the wallpaper
         or the couch. Plus he discovered this funny thing, everytime he
         scratched the furniture, this spray of water came at him that he
         did not like ;-)
         We also clip all cats nails around once a month with a small 
         nail clipper, that helps too.
    
    Shaw

    
    Floyd, my Maine-coon(ish) yearling (with no papers, just the attitude),
    is capable of jumping quite high, but he's fairly conservative about
    it.  He regularly jumps the 4 feet from the CatNapper in the window to
    the top of the bookcase that used to be Rocky's exclusive lair (which
    Rocky reaches by climbing up the drapes, usually with a running start).
    His favorite scratching media are all vertical, including the textured
    vinyl wallpaper in the bathroom.  He ignores the nice hemp wound
    ArubaCat floor model scratching post, though the other cats love it.
    
    Floyd's his own dog, as the commercial goes...
    
    len.
    

    I agree with everyone else.  Put something there lower than the window
    and you shouldn't have any more torn wallpaper.  My house is designed
    with cats in mind.  I also have things for them to lay on in front of
    the windows.  End tables, Aruba Cat Pedestal, 3-shelf bookcase, etc. 
    All of them have been trained to use the Scratching Posts by adding the
    Catnip to it in the beginning.  I also praise them exuberantly when I
    see them using it.  Silver only has 2 brain cells (one for play, one
    for lovey) and even he *NEVER* scratches furniture or walls.  I am
    allergic to paint so all my walls have wallpaper and there isn't one
    scratch in it from any of the current 7 cats.  As to the size of the
    Maine Coon,  Purebreds do get large, but it depends on what other breed
    has been mixed in which designates the size.  My beautiful Black
    Diamond definitely has Maine Coon in her, but she only weighed in at 7
    1/2 lbs (she probably weighs 9 or 10 lbs now that she has a home).
    
    Good Luck,
    
    Sandi and the 7 Notorious Cats
    

    Just want to clarify one point, Fluffs is not Scratching as in looking
    for a place to scratch.  He is simply "bottom heavy!" and can't seem to
    make it into a window without almost falling off the sill, which is why
    he starts to fall and the back claws are trying to grab at something..
    anything to keep from falling off. 
    
    If you understand that he was a stray from our woods until last fall,
    but I fully believe he's been someone's BABY!  He rolls over on the
    carpet in a full lenghth streeettcchh and just sort of connects with
    the rug with his claws and pulls back.  That's the closest I've ever
    seen him come to clawing anything!  He's has NEVER done any sort of
    malicious clawing.  I know, Barney (our former stray Siamese) will
    stand there and absolute tear at the rug if we don't let him out in the
    morning when he decides it's time, usually around 4a.m.grrrr!!  but
    that's another note.  I now sleep with a fine stream squirt bottle
    beside me, to discourage the clawing of the bedroom rug!
    
    We do make it a point to grab all three boys at least once a month and
    to nail clipping duty, more often if someone needs it.  Barney's claws
    are *huge!*  but my other one Bandit is small, dainty and declawed in
    front, and very gentle so he doesn't need it as often.
    
    Does this make any more sense?
    Lyn

    None of my Coons scratch walls, furniture, or anything else once they
    got past the baby stage.  Ruby will scratch rugs once in a while to let
    us know she needs her nails cut.  You don't say if your cat is
    neutered.  Max started putting on a belly once he was fixed, and if
    they are fixed too young they won't grow as big.  Max was 10 months,
    his brother Sarge at 9 months are both over twenty pounds.  The other
    brother was fixed at barely six months (their vet said it had to be
    done because of FUS) and he is around 14 pounds.  I know it isn't FUS
    that caused him to be small Sarge has had two bouts his owner told me.
    
    
    Dennis