Some websites confidently state that the world’s oldest cat breed is the Egyptian Mau but I disagree with the authors of these websites. Before you decide the world’s oldest cat breed you have to decide what a ‘cat breed’ is. … Continue reading →
Depending on the meaning of the phrase ‘cat breed’ the first cat breeds were either the Japanese Bobtail, British Shorthair and Egyptian Mau OR the British Shorthair and the Maine Coon. I’ll explain why I have come to this conclusion. … Continue reading →
The reason why Ragdolls are so docile is because they have been bred to be docile. This is called selective breeding. It is a little unusual for breeders to focus so intently on the character of the cat that they … Continue reading →
Although there are ten imaginative hypotheses as to why Manx cats have no tails, there is one genuine and less colourful reason which is that the Manx gene cropped up spontaneously as a naturally occurring mutation on the Isle of … Continue reading →
It depends how far back into history you want to go. The important point is that the Maine Coon, or any other domestic cat in the North America, did not evolve from a small wild cat species in North America. … Continue reading →
This very nice French cat breed’s origins and history are confusing. The connection with the Carthusian monks appears to have been fabricated to add mystique to the breed. It was probably created by selectively breeding random bred cats and that is certainly the case after WWII.
Continue reading →I’m going to take as my sole source of information for this article the excellent book written by Dr Desmond Morris and published in 1996 called Cat World A Feline Encyclopaedia. The truth is, however, that I’ve written about this … Continue reading →
The German, Devon and Cornish Rex cats were discovered in the middle of the 20th century (around 1950). It was thought that these were the earliest examples of the curly coated cats (rex cats). However Sarah Hartwell, who I met … Continue reading →
