The history of Bengal is quite recent. It was 1963 when Jean Mill in the United States casually paired her black house cat with a female Bengal cat (Felis Bengalensis) purchased in a pet shop. Around the same time, a zookeeper, a certain William Engler, mated a male Felis Bengalensis, or Asian leopard, guest of that same zoo, with a female domestic cat. It remained an isolated event, because no trace remained of these hybrids, with the exception of the name “bengals”, used a few years later to name the breed. Soon Mrs. Mill also abandoned the project, which was only revived in 1970 by a Californian scholar, Dr. Willard Centerwall. The researcher was experimenting with numerous crosses between this wild feline and the domestic cat, to study the immune defenses of Felis Bengalensis, believed to be naturally immune to the feline leukemia virus. He contacted Mrs Jean Mill and, as part of this project, entrusted her with eight first generation hybrid mares. These cats were mated with males of different breeds, such as the American shorthair, the Siamese, the Burmese and, in particular, the Egyptian Mau. The first kittens were presented in Tica in 1985 and the new breed, called Bengal in memory of the first hybrids, was recognized in 1991.

It is said that the Maine Coon is the result of an impossible love between a wild cat from the Maine forests and a raccoon: its name in fact derives from “racoon” (raccoon or raccoon), due to the magnificent rings drawn on its long tail. Others maintain that it even arrived on the cold coasts of Maine with the ships of the Vikings, around the year 1000, therefore long before the landing of Columbus. The most suggestive legend has it that it is a direct descendant of the Angora cats of Queen Marie Antoinette who, seeing her end near, took them on a ship bound for the United States. Legends aside, the Maine Coon is a strong and robust cat, of large proportions, the result of spontaneous selection offered by the extremely harsh climate and the impervious territory of Maine, a region on the north-eastern coast of the United States, on the border with Canada. To protect him from the cold, his coat is semi-long, the protective hair is thick and has a natural greasiness which, allowing water to slide off, makes the coat waterproof. The long tail, very rich in hair, protects his muzzle and ears when he curls up; the abundant tufts of fur on the ears protect and defend the auricles from the cold and the long legs and feet rich in fur allow it not to sink into the snow.