Oriental Shorthair with puppy ears

This is a picture and video of an Oriental Shorthair cat with floppy, puppy ears. The cat looks as if he might be a cross between an Oriental Shorthair and a Scottish Fold but I am pretty sure that he is not. That said, this Oriental Shorthair has puppy-like ears because they flop over, which can only occur because the ear flap cartilage has lost its rigidity. In the Scottish Fold cat breed this loss of rigidity is caused by a dominant allele symbolised as Fd. It is said to have “incomplete penetrance”.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

If it is not this genetic mutation which has caused the ears to lose their rigidity it is might be something else in the cat’s genetic make-up. A commenter, Tamara, says this: “Looks like an Oriental Shorthair where they broke the cats ear cartilage. I’ve seen people do this to Chihuahua’s along with cutting their tails off”. This would be extraordinary and an abusive act but possible. Thanks Tamara.

Either way, this is an extraordinary looking cat but he is definitely an Oriental Shorthair. His colour is a single dark chocolate.

The cat, as I understand it, was bred in Russia. This does not surprise me because the Russians do some extreme things with domestic cat breeds. They bred the largest Maine Coons for instance. I don’t know much more about this cat. What I do know I have simply worked out without any reference to the breeder which is because I can’t find the breeder’s website.

There is one extra point which might be worth making. In the Scottish Fold this genetic mutation not only causes the ears to fold, it has an effect throughout the skeletal system. For example, the bones of the tail become thickened and stiffened and the bones of the legs become thickened and arthritic especially around the feet. I hope, and expect by the way, that this cat will not suffer from these inherited health problems. But when you see the ear flaps folded like this you would expect the cartilage throughout the body to be affected as well, and not only in the ears. It is in the ears that the defect becomes visible.

And although it looks incredibly cute, we have to remind ourselves that these puppy ears indicate a defect in this cat. This is an inherited anatomical problem. The ear flaps of animal are meant to capture the sound and if they fold over, they are less efficient in this regard. Cuteness doesn’t equate to efficiency or survivability.

SOME MORE ON THE ORIENTAL SHORTHAIR: