Picture of gargoyle modern Siamese cat

Modern Siamese cat
Modern Siamese cat. Photo in the public domain.
Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

This is a picture of a modern Siamese cat. Some people don’t like me using the word “modern” in relation to this cat breed. For them, the elongated face of the Siamese cat combined with the super-slender figure is normal. This is what is expected of the Siamese cat. The world has come to regard this appearance as normal for this cat breed. But the norm has been changed over around 90 years of selective breeding. At the beginning, before breeders got their hands on this cat, Siamese cats looked exactly like any other random bred cat except for their pointed coat. And now they look peculiar and I know cat breeders don’t like me saying this but it’s true.

The breeding went too far and the breed standard encouraged breeders to go too far. In fact, one encourage the other in a kind of downward cycle which led to what you see in this photograph. I’ve described the head of this cat as looking like a gargoyle and there is a certain similarity. I’m not alone in disliking the extreme breeding of cats. The beauty of domestic cats is in their evolved anatomy. Nature created this body over millennia and it is highly functional. Perhaps their beauty is in the functionality of the domestic cat’s body. Mess around with that and you lose what nature gave it but the human knows best. Humans think they can improve and refine nature. Fair enough, and who am I to criticise?

There are two major cat breeds which have been selectively bred to extreme. The Siamese is one of them and the Persian is the other. They’ve both got the longest list of inherited genetic diseases of all the cat breeds, incidentally. Just a thought. But if you selectively breed (which is inbreeding) to extreme you get inbreeding depression which is essentially a suppressed immune system and a tendency towards illness with a consequential shortened lifespan.

The head is backlit which shows the ear flaps as semi-transparent which reminds us of the very thin anatomy of a cat’s pinnae. This is why domestic and stray cats’ ears can be frostbitten in very cold weather. They can get very cold. They can be sunburnt easily, too, which is why you see the occasional picture of an earless cat. The ears have been amputated.

P.S. Interesting point: you don’t see Siamese cats in Thailand as street cats or at temples. You’d have thought that they’d be everywhere in Thailand (formerly Siam). But no. What happened? When the first Siamese cats were imported from Thailand were they as rare in that country as they are today? They were said to be cats for royalty which implies that they were rare then and have been ever since. And back in those days (late 1800s) the Siamese cat had a kinked tail. That’s been ironed out by the breeders too.

Some more on Siamese cat health

I believe that modern Siamese cats can have weakened immune systems which can shorten lifespans

Do Siamese cats have sensitive stomachs?

Update April 2023: Pancreatitis A study reports that Siamese cats are at increased risk of pancreatitis. Cats with pancreatitis rarely ...
The Siamese cat has the most genetically inherited illnesses

Inherited metabolic diseases in domestic cats

The title describes disorders that produce degenerative changes in the central nervous system. They are determined by inherited genes. In ...
Modern Siamese

Average life expectancy of a Siamese cat

As this is an imprecise science I don't believe that you can provide a confident answer to a question about ...
Modern Siamese

Do Siamese cats have bad teeth?

Periodontitis appears to be more common in Siamese cats and the family of breeds associated with the Siamese e.g. the ...
Blue Siamese on Red Furniture

Why do Siamese cats vomit so much?

It is a good question and there may be five possible health reasons why Siamese cats might vomit so much ...
Siamese Cat With Black Eyes

Siamese Cat With Black Eyes

Question: I am having trouble finding info about black eye color in Siamese cats. One of my Siamese cats has ...
Cat born by Cesarean

Immune systems of cats weakened by Cesarean births?

Is it possible that Cesarean births of kittens are responsible for immune related and undefined health problems in pedigree, purebred ...
Siamese cat in a shelter

Siamese Cat Health Problems

The Siamese cat has the most inherited illnesses of all the cat breeds and the breeding of the modern Siamese ...
Useful tag. Click to see the articles: Cat behavior

1 thought on “Picture of gargoyle modern Siamese cat”

  1. That stock photo is one ugly cat. There is beauty in ugliness, but once again, humans have screwed up by inbreeding and in the process, helped to suppress the immune system of cats such as this one. Such a shame.

    I also agree about both Siamese and Persian cats having the worst health issues. Again, thanks to humans. Just one more reason I despise ‘shows’ of cats and even breeders, except to prevent a breed from going extinct. Anything else, IMHO, is nothing more than for human amusement.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Note: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified.
Useful links
Anxiety - reduce it
FULL Maine Coon guide - lots of pages
Children and cats - important
Scroll to Top