shag cat n Also shag, Maine shag (cat), rarely coon shag cat esp ME
= coon cat n 1.
1894 Chicago Tribune (IL) 25 Nov [18]/7, [Advt:] Good healthy shag cats and kittens; all colors; sent C.O.D. $4 and exp. chgs. C. M. Harrington & Co., Rockland, Me. 1901 Bangor Daily News (ME) 30 Dec 7/4, During the week, she had in this city [=Belfast ME], received from the country, a fine white coon shag cat, weighing some nine pounds, and not having a dark hair visible. 1903 Friend 76.388/3 ME, There is one woman on the coast of Maine who has made a very considerable income by conducting a cat farm. In that locality is a beautiful species of cat, called by some of the natives “coon cat” and by others “shag cats.” 1926 Bangor Daily News (ME) 31 Mar 14/8, [Advt:] For Sale—Beautiful Shag cats. 1935 Eve. Sentinel (Carlisle PA) 28 Sept 3/7, [Advt:] Lost—Half-grown grey Maine shag cat. 1944 Coatsworth Country Neighborhood 25 ME, Half the farmhouses of our neighborhood have Maine shags playing about the sheds and barn doors, and the women make a little money from the sale of kittens, which are collected and sent down to pet shops in Boston and other cities. . . No one knows where these “shags” or “coon-cats” originally came from. 1947 Pittsburgh Post–Gaz. (PA) 28 June 14/2, [Advt:] “Winnie”—Shag cat, white body, dark spot, head, tail. Reward $10.00. 1955 Boston Daily Globe (MA) 26 Oct 34/5, I never had heard of a shag cat, so asked a friend who ought to know. She says that, years ago, she had heard coon cats called shag cats, but doesn’t know if there is a distinct breed or strain of this name. 1981 Barrette Countryman’s Jrl. 34 ME, Belka’s mother, a six-toed Maine shag, came to us when we lived in Sullivan about twenty-three years ago. We got her as a kitten from a household on Grindstone Neck.