Captain Coon and the Maine Coon

Another folk tale involves Captain Charles Coon, an English seafarer who kept long-haired cats aboard his ships. Whenever Coon's ship would anchor in New England ports, the felines would exit the ship and mate with the local feral  cat population. When long-haired kittens began appearing in the litters of the local cat population, they were referred to as one of "Coon's cats."