| History time line | |||
| 1966 | White domestic shorthair in Ontario Canada gives birth to a hairless cat amongst “normal” kittens. He is called Prune, bred back to his mother to produce more hairless cats and the breed started. | ||
| 1988 | The first Sphynx cat enters the UK from Holland | ||
| 1990 | Application to the GCCF for the breed to be recognized | ||
| 1998 | CFA accept breed for Miscellaneous class | ||
| 2002 | CFA accept breed for Championship class | ||
| 2006 | GCCF granted the Sphynx breed preliminary recognition | ||
| Now | CFA,TICA and FIFe fully recognize this cat. | ||
Appearance and character
Most of us know that the Sphynx cat is not actually hairless – but just looks that way, at a distance. This cat has very fine downy hair and there are no whiskers and eyebrows or they are small and perhaps broken. They can seem quite slight in appearance but can be largish with a pot belly. In fact the CFA would penalize a cat, of this breed, that looked delicate so this cat needs to look pretty robust. The Sphynx cat falls into the category of a semi-foreign body conformation. The body should have a broad chest and a rounded belly but not a human-type pot belly, please.
The other, perhaps, obvious characteristics (supported by the GCCF breed standard, called the Standard of Points), are the large (very large sometimes) ears, long bony head with high and prominent check bones, large eyes and long wiry looking tail (exaggerated by the fact that it is hairless). Perhaps a number features are exaggerated as they are not covered by fur. The color of the cat is irrelevant to the GCCF. Sphynx cats take on the patterns of their fur through their skin. Determining the color of the fur is difficult (is it irrelevant as there is so little of it?). The hair on the foot pads and around the eyes can help.
The Sphynx seems to have longer limbs or is this just the lack of hair giving and impression? The answer is, yes, as the GCCF breed standard states that the legs and feet are of medium length. They also seem to have longer “fingers” and “toes”, which they use to good effect in holding on to things. As it happens this is, in fact, the case as the GCCF breed standard says the toes should be long and slender (the CFA does not say this). Look at the picture below by dracorubio (Flickr name) and see how the paws are so much like hands and fingers. This cat uses these “fingers” to good effect, being more adept at picking up objects.
They are probably the most intelligent cat breed and therefore require input and interaction from the human keeper or another cat perhaps. They are also agile and strong so something to play with and climb on will probably be welcome. In other words they are active and also vocal.
Want to see GUNNER? He is very handsome + some more on appearance and temperature..Sphynx Cat GUNNER.
When I initially commented I appear to have clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and from now on
each time a comment is added I get four emails with the exact same comment.
Perhaps there is a means you can remove me from that service?
Cheers!
Hi there. The default is that a person receives replies to their comment. That is what should happen. You shouldn’t have many replies because very few people comment on this page. Not sure how you stop that. I’ll check it out. It is a plugin for WordPress.
I wish I could have one. The gray ones seem to look nicest. I love all cats.