Zibeline is a French term for the sable Burmese. The Burmese is a breed of domestic cat, originating in Thailand, believed to have its roots near the present Thai-Burma border and developed in the United States and Britain. American and British breeders developed distinctly different Burmese breed standards, which is unusual among pedigreed domestic cats. Most modern cat registries do not formally recognize the two as separate breeds, but those that do refer to the British type as the European Burmese. Originally, all Burmese cats were dark brown (sable), but are now available in a wide variety of colors; formal recognition of these also varies by standard.
Most modern Burmese are descendants of one female cat called Wong Mau, which was brought from Burma to America in 1930 and bred with American Siamese. In 1936, the Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) granted the breed formal recognition. However, due to continued extensive outcrossing with Siamese cats to increase the population, the original type was overwhelmed, and the CFA suspended breed recognition a decade later. Attempts by various American breeders to refine the unique Burmese standard persisted, however, and in 1954, the CFA lifted the suspension permanently.
The two standards differ mainly in head and body shape. The British or traditional ideal tends toward a more slender, long-bodied cat with a wedge-shaped head, large pointed ears, long tapering muzzle and moderately almond-shaped eyes. The legs should likewise be long, with neat oval paws. The tail tapers to medium length. The American (also called "contemporary") Burmese is a noticeably stockier cat, with a much broader head, round eyes and distinctively shorter, flattened muzzle; the ears are wider at the base. Legs and tail should be proportionate to the body, medium-length, and the paws also rounded. In either case, Burmese are a small to medium size breed, but are nevertheless substantially-built, muscular cats and should feel heavy for their size when held --often referred to as a "brick wrapped in silk".
The breed's original standard color is a distinctively rich dark brown, variously known as sable (USA), brown (UK, Australia) or seal (New Zealand). It is the result of the Burmese gene (cb), part of the albino series. This gene causes a reduction in the amount of pigment produced, converting black into brown and rendering all other colors likewise paler than their usual expression. The action of the gene also produces the modified colorpoint effect, which is more noticeable in young kittens.
The first blue Burmese was born in 1955 in Britain, followed by red, cream, and tortoiseshell over the next decades. Champagne ("chocolate" in the UK) first appeared in America. Platinum (UK "lilac"), the last major variant to appear, was likewise developed in America beginning in 1971. Currently, the British GCCF standard recognizes solid brown, chocolate, blue, lilac, red and cream, as well as the tortoiseshell pattern on a base of brown, chocolate, blue or lilac. Currently, the CFA standard still recognizes the Burmese only in solid sable, blue, champagne, and platinum.
Other colors have been developed from this initial base set, with varying degrees of popularity and recognition. Cinnamon, fawn, caramel, and apricot Burmese have been developed in New Zealand, as have tortoiseshell variants of all these colors. A new color mutation has arisen in Burmese lines being bred in New Zealand and an experimental breeding program began in 2007. The color is called russet and appears to be the result of the dark pigment in the cats' coats fading as they grow, while paler orange pigment remains
The Maine Coon, sometimes called the Yankee Cat, is one of the largest domesticated breeds of cat. It has a distinctive physical appearance and valuable hunting skills. It is one of the oldest natural breeds in North America. The Maine Coon is a large and sociable cat, hence its nickname, "the gentle giant." It is characterized by a prominent ruff along its chest, robust bone structure, triangular body shape, an uneven two layered coat with longer guard hairs with a silky satin under layer undercoat, and a long, bushy tail.
No records of the Maine Coon's exact origins and date of introduction to the United States exist, so several competing hypotheses have been suggested. The breed was popular in cat shows in the late 19th century, but its existence became threatened when long-haired breeds from overseas were introduced in the early 20th century. The Maine Coon has since made a comeback and is now one of the more popular cat breeds in the world.
The ancestral origins of the Maine Coon are unknown — there are only speculation and folk tales. One such folk tale involves Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France, who was executed in 1793. The story goes that before her death, Antoinette attempted to escape France with the help of Captain Samuel Clough. She loaded Clough's ship with her most prized possessions, including six of her favorite Turkish Angora cats. Although she did not make it to the United States, her pets safely reached the shores of Wiscasset, Maine, where they bred with other short-haired breeds and developed into the modern breed of the Maine Coon.
Another folk tale involves Captain Charles Coon, an English seafarer who kept long-haired cats aboard his ships. Whenever Coon's ship would anchor in New England ports, the felines would exit the ship and mate with the local feral cat population. When long-haired kittens began appearing in the litters of the local cat population, they were referred to as one of "Coon's cats".
A myth which is trait-based, though genetically impossible, is the idea that the modern Maine Coon descended from ancestors of semi-feral domestic cats and raccoons. This myth is likely based on the most common color of the breed (brown tabby) and its bushy tail. Another idea is that the Maine Coon originated from the matings of domestic cats and wild bobcats, which could explain the tufts of hair that are so commonly seen on the tips of the ears.
The generally accepted hypothesis among breeders is that the Maine Coon is descended from the pairings of local short-haired domestic cats and long-haired breeds brought overseas by English seafarers (possibly by Captain Charles Coon) or 11th-century Norsemen.
Maine Coons can have any colors that other cats have. Colors indicating crossbreeding, such as chocolate, lavender, the Siamese pointed patterns or the "ticked" patterns, are not accepted by some breed standards (the 'ticked' pattern, for example, is accepted by TICA). The most common pattern seen in the breed is brown tabby. All eye colors are accepted under breed standards, with the exception of the occurrence of blue-colored or odd-eyes (i.e. two eyes of different colors) in cats possessing coat colors other than white.
Maine Coons have several physical adaptations for survival in harsh winter climates. Their dense water-resistant fur is longer and shaggier on their underside and rear for extra protection when they are walking or sitting on top of wet surfaces of snow or ice. Their long and bushy raccoon-like tail is resistant to sinking in snow, and can be curled around their face and shoulders for warmth and protection from wind and blowing snow and it can even be curled around their backside like an insulated seat cushion when sitting down on a snow or ice surface. Large paws, and especially the extra-large paws of polydactyl Maine Coons, facilitate walking on snow and are often compared to snowshoes. Long tufts of fur growing between their toes help keep the toes warm and further aid walking on snow by giving the paws additional structure without significant extra weight. Heavily furred ears with extra long tufts of fur growing from inside help keep their ears warm.
The York Chocolate (or simply York) is an uncommon and relatively recent American breed of show cat, with a long, fluffy coat and a tapered tail and most of them are mostly or entirely chocolate-brown. The breed was named after New York state, where it was established in 1983. This breed was created by color-selecting domestic long-haired cats of mixed ancestry. The breed is not widely recognized by cat registries.
The breed was created by Janet Chiefari in 1983. The father was a black longhaired cat and the mother was a longhaired black and white cat. Their Siamese ancestors created the brown coloring in one kitten: Brownie. Brownie had a litter that subsequent summer with a black longhaired tom. There were two kittens in the litter: a chocolate male and a white and chocolate female. Upon noticing similarities in coat and body types, Chiefari began her own breeding program.
The breed is recognized, under the shorter name York, by the recently founded World Cat Federation based in Germany, and with some differences from previously published standards, most of which seem to be lost. The breed is not recognized by any major, long-established international cat fancier organizations, nor even US national groups such as the American Cat Fanciers Association (ACFA). In March 1990, the Cat Fanciers' Federation of the New England area of the US recognized York Chocolates as an "experimental" cat breed, and allegedly gave it championship status within the group in March 1992, but publishes no breed standard or any other information about the breed today. In March 1990, the Cat Fanciers' Federation of the New England area of the US recognized York Chocolates as an "experimental" cat breed, and allegedly gave it championship status within the group in March 1992, but publishes no breed standard or any other information about the breed today.
The York Chocolate is a very friendly, even-tempered breed that is very content as a lap cat. They love to be held and cuddled. The cats are intelligent, energetic, and curious, happily following their owner around. They are reportedly good companions and good hunters. They seem to be enamored with water and are sometimes shy.
The Siamese cat is one of the first distinctly recognized breeds of Asian cat. The Siamese became one of the most popular breeds in Europe and North America in the 19th century. In the 1950s–1960s, many breeders and cat show judges began to favor the more slender look. As a result of generations of selective breeding, they created increasingly long, fine-boned, narrow-headed cats; eventually the modern show Siamese was bred to be extremely elongated, with a lean, tubular body, long, slender legs, a very long, very thin tail that tapers gradually into a point and a long, wedge-shaped head topped by extremely large, wide-set ears.
The carefully refined modern Siamese is characterized by blue almond-shaped eyes; a triangular head shape; large ears; an elongated, slender, and muscular body; and point coloration. (Aside from the coloration, it bears little resemblance to the original stock, and the more moderate, traditional or "old-style" Siamese, with a much rounder head and body, has been re-established by multiple registries as the Thai cat.)
By the mid-1980s, cats of the original style had largely disappeared from cat shows, but a few breeders, particularly in the UK, continued to breed and register them, resulting in today's two types of Siamese: the modern, "show-style", standardized Siamese, and the "Traditional Siamese", both descended from the same distant ancestors, but with few or no recent ancestors in common, and effectively forming distinct sub-breeds, with some pressure to separate them entirely. In addition to the modern Siamese breed category, The International Cat Association (TICA) and the World Cat Federation (WCF) now accept Siamese cats of the less extreme type under the new breed name Thai. Other, mostly unofficial, names for the traditional variety are "Old-style Siamese", "Classic Siamese", and "Applehead" (originally a derogatory nickname coined by breeders of modern-type Siamese).
The modern Siamese shares the pointed color pattern with the Thai, or traditional Siamese, but they differ in head and body type. The pointed pattern is a form of partial albinism, resulting from a mutation in tyrosinase, an enzyme involved in melanin production. The mutated tyrosinase enzyme is heat-sensitive; it fails to work at normal body temperatures, but becomes active in cooler (< 33 °C) areas of the skin. This results in dark coloration in the coolest parts of the cat's body, including the extremities and the face, which is cooled by the passage of air through the sinuses.
All Siamese kittens, although pure cream or white at birth, develop visible points in the first few months of life in colder parts of their body. By the time a kitten is four weeks old, the points should be sufficiently clearly distinguishable to recognize which color they are. Siamese cats tend to darken with age, and generally, adult Siamese living in warm climates have lighter coats than those in cool climates.
Originally the vast majority of Siamese had seal (extremely dark brown, almost black) points, but occasionally Siamese were born with "blue" (a cool grey) points, genetically a dilution of seal point; chocolate (lighter brown) points, a genetic variation of seal point; or lilac (pale warm gray) points, genetically a diluted chocolate. These colors were at first considered "inferior" seal points, and were not qualified for showing or breeding. All of these shades were eventually accepted by the breed associations, and became more common through breeding programs specifically aimed at producing these colors. Later, outcrosses with other breeds developed Siamese-mix cats with points in other cat colors and patterns, including Red and Cream point, lynx (tabby) point, and tortoise-shell("tortie") point.
In the United Kingdom, all pointed Siamese-style cats are considered part of the Siamese breed. In the United States, a major cat registry, the Cat Fanciers' Association, considers only the four original fur colors as Siamese: seal point, blue point, chocolate point, and lilac point. Oriental Shorthair cats with color points in colors or patterns aside from these four are considered color point Short hairs in that registry. The World Cat Federation has also adopted this classification, treating the color point Short hair as a distinct breed.
The Persian cat (is a long-haired breed of cat characterized by its round face and short muzzle. It is also known as the Persian Longhair. The Persian cat was first presented at the world's first organised cat show in 1871 in London, England, before making its way to the United States of America in the early 1900s. The Persian cat breeding standards have always called for a cat with a short face, but it's important to note that the Persian cat originally had a much longer nose than the flat-faced Persians of today. In the late 1950s a spontaneous mutation in red and red tabby Persians gave rise to the "peke-faced" Persian, named after the flat-faced Pekingese dog. The over-accentuation of the breed's characteristics by selective breeding (called extreme- or ultra-typing) produced results similar to the peke-faced Persians.
The "peke-faced" Persian fell out of favor by the mid-1990s due to serious health issues. While the looks of the Persian changed, the Persian Breed Council's standard for the Persian had remained basically the same. The Persian breed standard is, by its nature, somewhat open-ended and focused on a rounded head, large, wide-spaced round eyes with the top of the nose leather placed no lower than the bottom of the eyes. It was not until the late 1980s that standards were changed to limit the development of the extreme appearance. In 2004, the statement that muzzles should not be overly pronounced was added to the breed standard. The standards were altered yet again in 2007, this time to reflect the flat face, and it now states that the forehead, nose, and chin should be in vertical alignment.
n the UK, the standard was changed by the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF) in the 1990s to disqualify Persians with the "upper edge of the nose leather above the lower edge of the eye" from Certificates or First Prizes in Kitten Open Classes. While ultra-typed cats do better in the show ring, the public seems to prefer the less extreme, older "doll-face" types.
The American Wirehair is a spontaneous mutation of the American Shorthair. It first occurred as a random mutation among a litter of five born to a pair of barn cats in 1966 in Vernon, in upstate New York. American Wirehairs are similar to American Shorthairs, with the exception of a springy, wiry coat, including ear fur, and whiskers. This coat is similar to the wire coats of some dog breeds, such as terriers.
Wirehairs are of a moderate, sturdy build, with round heads, high cheekbones, and a pronounced muzzle. American Wirehairs display the full spectrum of possible cat coat colors, although Himalayan, Chocolate and Lilac are not accepted for competition. The Wirehair coat trait is dominant, so any breeding between a Wirehair and another cat can produce wired kittens.
The Wirehair has an even, balanced temperament which is essentially identical to that of its American Shorthair relative. Wirehairs are equally content to play or fall asleep in their owners' laps. They have been described as cute and somewhat humorous. They are gentle and quiet, but also playful and active. They have quiet voices. American Wirehairs generally prefer to stay indoors.
As the breed population grew in the 60′s and 70′s, cats were exported to Canada, and Germany where they are especially popular. The breed did well, and in 1967 it was recognized by the CFA, and in 1978, it was accepted for championship competition. American Wirehairs have yet to make an appearance in Britain and Australia, among other countries.
The Van cat is a landrace (naturally occurring variety), not a formal breed of cat, found in the Lake Van region of eastern Turkey. It is relatively large, has a chalky white coat, sometimes with ruddy coloration on the head and hindquarters, and has blue or amber eyes or is odd-eyed (having one eye of each color). The variety has been referred to as "the swimming cat", and observed to swim in Lake Van.
The naturally occurring Van cat type is popularly believed to be the basis of the Turkish Van breed, as standardized and recognized by many cat fancier organizations; it has been internationally selectively bred to consistently produce the ruddy head-and-tail coloring pattern on the white coat. However, one of the breed founders' own writings indicate that the four original cats used to found the formal breed came from other parts of Turkey than the Lake Van area. The capitalized and run-together term "Turkish Vankedisi" is confusingly used by some organisations as a name for all-white specimens of the formal Turkish Van breed. The landrace is named Van kedi (plural kediler or kedileri, possessive genitive kedisi) in Turkish, Vana katou or Vana gadou in Armenian, and pisîka Wanê in Kurdish. All of these names literally translate to 'cat of Van' or 'Van cat'.
The cats are notable for their lean, long-legged appearance. They are all-white, or sometimes mostly white with amber markings around the tail and ears. Locals to the Van area identify only the all-white type as the Van cat, according to a 1991 BBC documentary, Cats, written and presented by Roger Tabor. Their most notable genetic characteristic is their almond-shaped eyes that often are mismatched colors. The most valued and valuable members of the type generally have one amber-green eye and one blue eye.
Van cats are known for swimming in Lake Van. This may be the source of the popular but possibly false or exaggerated belief that the formal Turkish Van breed is innately more fond of water than the average cat. Lushington wrote: "Apart from their great capacity for affection and alert intelligence, their outstanding characteristic is their liking for water, not normally regarded as a feline attribute. They not only dabble in water and play with it, but have been known to enter ponds and even horse-troughs for a swim – they soon became famous as the 'swimming cats.'" It is unclear if Lushington means the cats of the Lake Van area, or her own Turkish Van standardized breed. Tabor's BBC documentary states: "The reason for [its] fame is that the Van cat is known as 'the swimming cat'.... [H]ere at Lake Van ... these cats do enter it, and swim."
