New Cat Breed: The Pawnee
(Alturas, CA, US)
The Pawnee is a new cat breed from a family of feral cats in Alturas, CA. They didn’t exist at first but in recent years (they started becoming fairly common in about 2010, maybe before) they evolved here.
Some feral cats are pets (there wasn’t anyone trying to breed them then) but I noticed that there was a type of cat evolving here (including some of my own cats) that were different from normal moggies and similar to American and European Shorthairs or Maine Coons (most cats in the area are similar to European Shorthairs or Maine Coons, with only a few Pawnees).
I think I accidentally caused the breed, because my two cats I brought here have many traits similar to them, they are both spayed/neutered now as they don’t fit the standard of would just cause more inbreeding.
The cats are allowed to breed randomly so the best cats survive but sometimes selectively bred for the best traits. Some of them are feral cats or owned by people who think they have a normal mix, and the free breeding allows cats to breed with these cats. They are probably inbred (I guessed their pedigree based on traits, plus one of them is mentally retarded) so it’s good to let them breed with random cats, because cats that fit the standard are almost guaranteed to be related to them.
There are 11 cats in my breeding registry (7 males and 4 females, 4 of the cats are far from the standard but are allowed to prevent inbreeding, 3 of the cats are my cats, and the other 8 are feral)
They have a semi-cobby or intermediate body type, the males are large, about 10-12 pounds, and I haven’t weighed any females but they are a lot lighter, the males are also noticeably larger than the females. Their torso is like a Turkish Van or Japanese Bobtail but more cobby, they have short or medium length legs that are of about average thickness, but males sometimes may have thicker legs.
They have small heads that make them look smaller than they are (one of my Pawnees looks a lot smaller than my other cat of the same size except the head and legs, but when you compare them they are the same size).
They have large ears that may be pointy or rounded and may or may not have tufts, they have slightly larger than average eyes that are round or oval. They may have Japanese Bobtail and polydactyl mutations (only one extra toe on each foot limit though) They can be any fur length except hairless or extremely short or long fur, they may have seasonal changing fur. They come in any color except colors from wild cat species (other than Wildcat, Jungle Cat, and Chinese Mountain Cat), dominant white (Siamese white and lots of white markings are allowed), and pink/red-eyed albino, and all eye colors are allowed except Ojos Azules.
Hi….. thanks for visiting and sharing. In publishing your article I have some doubts about it. You are describing a random bred cat, which by definition cannot therefore be a cat breed as cat breeds are made up of purebred cats.
Also you say the cat is similar a European shorthair or a Maine Coon. These are at almost opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of appearance. So that statement does not make much sense – sorry.
You might be describing a type of cat appearance that is unique to a specific area (like the Bahraini Dilmun is to Bahrain) but that does not make the cat a cat breed. They have the potential to become a cat breed if developed and recognized or accepted by a cat association.
However, from your description this cat does not look sufficiently different from a random bred cat or any of the other cat breeds to be viable as a new cat breed.
Forgive me if what I have said sounds too tough. I am just trying to put across my point of view in plain language.
I do appreciate you taking the time to share on this site.
Do you have photo! That would be nice.
Michael