Perhaps A Maine Coon, Norwegian, Or Siberian Forest Cat?

[kmsimons]

SEE ATTACHED PHOTOS

Bear is a 2yo, 14lb male with a smoke black & white 3-layered coat, and a bushy racoon tail that sticks straight up

If you want to ID using photos, awesome! But, I know personalities play a big part in ID'ing cats! If I had to describe Bear in one sentence, it would be that he has the 3AM crazies, but literally 24/7.

Here's some stand-out personality traits that Bear possesses:
- Vocal
- Loyal
- Intelligent (trained to fetch, sit, and shake)
- Energetic (sprints around the entire house randomly for no reason multiple times/day, I seriously have no idea how this cat has so much energy)
- Dependent (follower, needy, requiring constant attention)
- Shy (slow to warm-up, trash bags and vacuums are the scariest thing in the world)
- Playful (plays with his toys all by himself, goes to town on the scratching post)
- Hunter (tears at toys with paws to try and destroy, stalker, pouncer)
- Belly-up (literally sits like a human, belly up, but HATES when its touched)
- Friendly biter (bites when scratched wrong, begging for attention)
- Good with other pets (unlike my other cat who wants to size-up anyone or anything, Bear doesn't care about other animals and will continue to do his own thing)
- Tree climber
- Head bunter
- Water-lover
- Enjoys being held

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!
He's confusing me. The three breeds you mention are long-haired cats, this big gorgeous fellow doesn't have that so I'm at a little bit of a loss...howEVER, I'm totally sure of this;
What a wonderful feline!!!

 

[kmsimons]

You don't think he has long hair? He's definitely not short haired, and he's pretty fluffy.

 

[lutece]

He appears to me to have a semi-long coat (genetically longhair). I would describe him as a black smoke and white domestic longhair. He is a beautiful cat and sounds like a wonderful friend to have, too.

I don't see anything about him that would indicate ancestry from any particular breed. Note that almost all cats, both longhair and shorthair, are simply domestic cats without any particular breed in their ancestry. There is tremendous physical and behavioral diversity in the domestic cat population.

 

[Furballsmom]

Please, don't be disappointed or frustrated, that's not the intent at all.
I can tell from your description of him and the photos, you really love your big fella with all your heart.
And I think he's an awesome cat!!

 

[kmsimons]

Please, don't be disappointed or frustrated, that's not the intent at all.
I can tell from your description of him and the photos, you really love your big fella with all your heart.
And I think he's an awesome cat!!

He's pretty awesome. Thanks!

 

[kmsimons]

He appears to me to have a semi-long coat (genetically longhair). I would describe him as a black smoke and white domestic longhair. He is a beautiful cat and sounds like a wonderful friend to have, too.

I don't see anything about him that would indicate ancestry from any particular breed. Note that almost all cats, both longhair and shorthair, are simply domestic cats without any particular breed in their ancestry. There is tremendous physical and behavioral diversity in the domestic cat population.

I was hoping he would have ancestry from a particular breed, because he is such an interesting cat I want to try and get another with similar personality traits when he passes one day. Just to be sure, I might get genetic testing done to see if there is strong resemblance anywhere!

 

[Furballsmom]

This may provide some info about that;
Best Place To Have Genetic Testing Done

 

[weebeasties]

Wow! Bear is so handsome! He sounds like he has an amazing personality as well.
I'm useless when it comes to cat breeds, but I wanted to comment on the hair length.
I have always heard that long haired cats are fluffy as kittens. I'm sure that is true most of the time. However, I have two (unrelated) that didn't floof out until they were older.
Keith showed up at about a year old looking like a short haired cat. By the time he was two, he looked to be a medium hair. By age three he was a total fluffball and definitely considered a long hair. He's got some sort of big breed ancestry in him somewhere, I think.
Anyway, looking at your Bear reminded me of how Keith looked at around two years - medium coat and big fluffy tail. He may surprise you and get even longer hair as he matures. I don't know if it is common, but I have personally seen it happen.
Either way, Bear is just gorgeous and the two of you are so lucky to have found each other!

 

[Furballsmom]

Here's more info, this is actually the test I was originally thinking of as opposed to my previous post...
Cat Dna Test

 

[weebeasties]

For reference, this was Keith when young.

And this is him a few years later.

 

[Furballsmom]

WOW
Well, there you go LOL
Of course, every cat is different but this sure goes to prove that some big breeds can be "late bloomers/floofers"

 

[Alice catlady]

I don’t know that much about MC or Siberian, but I’ve had quite a few Norwegians. One of them had a night out, and got kittens. We kept one, and his fur was short. However, the Norwegians have really weird fur (it takes a lot for them to get wet), and he had that, even with the short fur. He ended up shedding like crazy, all year. So they can have Norwegian ancestry and still have short hair. A fun fact is also that they climb down trees head first.

However, I don’t see anything in this beautiful cat that screams Norwegian. He does however remind a lot of my two male housecats, looks and personality. Just with a bit more floof in his fur. If you don’t know the parentes, have papers or do DNA, it can be difficult to tell. Cats comes in so many shapes, shades and forms. I have two kittens now, their mum is a persian. You can easily see it in one of them, but I would never have guessed that the other is half persian. Just like I probably woulden’t have guessed that my old cat was half Norwegian.

 

[mightyboosh]

On the first photo he looks to have a chunky muzzle reminiscent of a MC and he's a good weight at 2yrs so you never know, he may have some in him from somewhere.