European Shorthair

by Michael
(London, UK)

European Shorthair – beautiful brown mackerel tabby QUINCY (more below)

The European Shorthair is a breed of cat that at present (2010) comes third in the trio of nationally named shorthaired cats. The others being the better known American Shorthair and British Shorthair cats. That is not to say that this “ranking” will remain the same. This page is shorter than usual as build time is commensurate to popularity.

Introduction

This is a relatively little known cat breed that is said to originate in Sweden¹ and which is better known in Sweden for that reason³. I suspect that this is incorrect and its place of origin is the European mainland².

Perhaps it is less well known because the breed is found on continental or mainland Europe (essentially Europe excluding the United Kingdom and Ireland). The UK is the home of the cat fancy and there is arguably less cat fancy activity on mainland Europe.

Another possible reason why the breed has not caught the imagination of the cat fancy is because the mainstream shorthair market is already fully subscribed. Is there really room for a very similar cat to the American and British SHs? Finally, the history of this cat is much shorter. Both the American and British SHs have long histories going back to the beginning of the cat fancy in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

So, notwithstanding the breed occupies a vastly larger area than the UK it is less well known and less popular than the Brit SH. Indeed I have not listed it in the most popular breed poll (probably unfairly).

Until 1982 the British and European Shorthairs were classified together. FIFe, having then classified the breed separately created an instant new breed, which through selective breeding become less cobby than the rather square, slightly flat faced British Shorthair. It is also longer in the body. These differences is it said might reflect the generally warmer climate on mainland Europe and the less cobby cats that occupy it. I think that this cat looks more like the American Shorthair. When breeding this cat today (2010) no British Shorthair crosses are allowed².

The European Shorthair is a regular looking cat, nicely balanced with similar traits to the British counterpart. It looks like a British random bred cat, in fact – utterly normal in conformation and character (calm and affectionate² is well socialised).

Appearance

The body is medium to large and well muscled. It is not a cobby cat, however (see cat body types).

The coat is short and dense. It does not lie flat against the body as is the case for the single coated cats. However, it is said that it “should lie flat”³. This is either incorrect as a dense coat should not lie flat or the wide open breed standard allows for single coated cats in which case the coat would lie flat.

The face should “give the impression of being rounded” but be longer than it is wide. The is triangular to rounded with well defined muzzle.

The ears should be medium sized and upright. Eyes: large round and well spaced with a colour that matches the coat. Legs: medium length and muscular. Tail: medium length, thick at base, tapering to rounded tip².

The FIFe breed standard probably sums up the objectives for the this breed in saying that it should look as if it has not been bred but developed naturally. In short it should look like a moggie cat but have a pedigree. The FIFe breed standard is shorter and more open than those of the American cat associations.

The weight range is between 8 and 15 lbs (3.5 to 7 kg)

The breed colours are: (1) the three traditional tabby patterns of classic (blotched), mackerel and spotted coats in brown, blue, red, cream, tortie and blue tortie. The Abyssinian type ticked coat is not recognised. Variations on the tabby coats are naturally accepted and the high contrast silvers are popular². Tabby markings should be symmetrical (2) Self (solid) colours of black, blue (see picture above right), red, cream, tortie, blue tortie, white (3) Smokes (colours as for selfs and tortie excluding white) (4) Bicolors (standard and Van patterns), colours are all self colours and torties with white.

Pointed European Shorthairs are accepted. These cats look very similar to the traditional Siamese except the “body tends to show more shading”².

See the FIFe breed standard – link broken Aug 2013

References:

Heading image: Wikimedia® commons license – Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License – author: Fleshgrinder Cat: Quincy.

¹ Cat Facts website

² The Encyclopedia of the Cat by Dr. Bruce Fogle

³ Wikipedia authors

Associated Pages:

Link to original Flickr Photo (photo half way down page)

Comparison between American, British and European Shorthaired cats

British Shorthair Cat

American Shorthair Cat

From European Shorthair to Home Page

American Shorthair.

Feb 26, 2010

The very image of cat by: Finn Frode, DenmarkSomething like the picture of Quincy inevitably comes to my mind whenever I think of the word ‘cat’, maybe because this was what the cats of my childhood looked like. Although refining the European Shorthair breed started in Sweden, it is based on what I think was once the common type of domestic cat all over Northern Europe. And maybe on the British Isles as well – before Persian were bred into the British Shorthair lines.