The owner’s story about the all-grey cat, Naul, is that “He is as mischievous as he looks”.
He certainly does look mischievous but the strongest aspect of his expression is his smile. I don’t think I’ve seen a stronger smile on the face of a domestic cat and of course I’ve seen hundreds of thousands of cat photographs over the years.
My mind was immediately taken to a well-known but quite rare cat breed called the Chartreux. This is a French cat known to have a permanent smile due to the structure of their facial bones. They are beautiful all-grey cats, quite stocky (semi-cobby) with a body that is out of proportion to their legs by which I mean their legs are relatively slim compared to their cobby body. Perhaps Naul has some French blood running through his veins.
An interesting aspect of the Chartreux is that they have a naming convention whereby the first letter of the name of the cat is chosen in reference to the cat’s date of birth. The history of the Chartreux is mired in a fog of contradictions.
It would be nice to hear from the owners of Naul to see whether he is a purebred cat or not.
The picture and owner’s words are from the Fluff Society on Twitter. Thanks.