Photo of Oriental Longhair
Although Helmi has not described this cat as an Oriental Longhair, he has to be judging by his appearance. His name is Jack of Noah’s Ark. The photograph has an ethereal quality, semi-translucent, which I like. It gives Jack a mysterious appearance.
Oriental Longhair: Jack of Noah’s Ark – photo copyright Helmi Flick.
The face is 100% Oriental Shorthair or Longhair; long and thin (and Jack’s muzzle is incredibly ‘square’). This is a face that I don’t really like normally but I think I can make an exception for Jack. He is very handsome. The Siamese family of cats is large: Oriental Shorthair, Oriental Longhair, Siamese and Balinese (long haired Siamese). There are more cat breeds associated with the Siamese such as the Javanese.
Oriental LH. Photo copyright Helmi Flick
“Elegance” appears to have been the guiding light for breeders of this family of cats over the past half century and more. Elegance in breeding translates to a slender, sleek beauty and that includes the face which is noticeably “wedge shaped”. The ears are always extraordinarily large and triangular. Jack’s ears are not extreme by the some standards. The coat appears to be a dilute grey (blue) but no doubt someone will correct me on that.
All the characteristics (except for the longer hair) and discussion topics about this breed apply equally to the Oriental Shorthair, which on is this page of PoC.
One last point: Everything on this page relates to the modern appearance. There is a still a lot of support for the more traditional Siamese/Oriental appearance which is less slender.