Very Odd Cat ??

[The Snark]

What appeared to be a domestic cat in a domestic environment. Observed from about 4 feet away.

It was entirely orange, normal cat color. The fur however was shaggy. Not long hair cat but much more like a double coat shaggy dog. It was maybe 2 inches taller than the average domestic cat but the bone structure was definitely not Lynx or Bobcat.
It's head was almost 6 inches across and the body bulky and heavy set. I'd guess 25 to 30 lbs in weight.
It's tail was unusual in that the last half, normal cat, had 5 clearly defined blond rings around it.

Searching the net has drawn a blank. Anyone heard of something like this?

 

[Belegnole]

Sounds like a red panda, except they have markings on the face and ears a well.

 

[The Snark]

Sounds like a red panda, except they have markings on the face and ears a well.

The tail matches perfectly. The coat is similar. Other markings and stature are decidedly different.

 

[Belegnole]

There's some other animal that has a similar coloring. Can't remember what it is right now, but I think it may be related to raccoons....thanks for the puzzle to solve.

Oh I've also seen huge scruffy cats before. I had a Maine Coon that was around 26 pounds.

 

[Ghost56]

I'm also gonna lean towards it being a maine coon. They can be scruffy, and I've seen a few get massive. Not sure about the colors and patterns, but that could be the result of mixed breeds.

 

[The Snark]

The general shape is Maine Coon. The coloration perfectly matches the back half of a Red Panda and if I look at many more cat pictures I'm going to start hallucinating. IE Our extremely bastard mixed breed tortoise cat is identical to a German Rex.
My view of this cat was almost looking straight down at it and it was broad. Very hefty. Think draft horse compared to an average quarter horse.

To give some rough comparison. At the hospital where I worked we had two miniature panthers that were probably siblings. Both around 25 lbs and capable of jumping to the roof of a breezeway 10 feet in the air with one bounce off a wall. These were normal cat shaped, just oversized and sort of primal throwbacks of modern cat breeds. This orange Panda Maine Coon was a completely different shape from them. Like vaguely Bulldog compared to a setter.

I'm tempted to go back there and see if I can catch this dang cat, shave it and take photos showing it's profiles. Unfortunately that is the environs of sis-in-law so going back there is like going in for a long slow root canal without anesthetic that you don't need.