Cat Breeds

California Spangled Cat – The Miniature Leopard

The California Spangled cat certainly resembles a miniature leopard. The association with the leopard is a result of a carefully planned breeding program.

The man responsible is screen-writer Paul Casey. The California Spangled cat is a result of the crossing of many different breeds, among them were an Abyssinian, a spotted Manx, a Siamese and a street cat from Cairo, Egypt.

It took eleven generations of the cat breeding program to give him the specific type of cat he wanted.

The California Spangled is a short-haired cat. It is medium in size and has a muscular body.  The cat weighs about 4 – 8 kg (8 -16 pounds) and is surprisingly heavy in comparison to its weight.

It moves with a low-slung walk. It does seem as the cat is constantly on a hunt. The round black spots on the fur do resemble those of a leopard or an ocelot.

The tail always has a black tip.

Temperament

The California Spangled cat breed is extremely intelligent and an absolute privilege to live with. The California Spangled is a friendly and social cat.

It seems to need to have an overview of what is going on in a room and therefore enjoys sitting on higher places. This cat will indeed enjoy a large cat gym.

The California Spangled cat enjoys playing and is told to be good tempered. All in all this is a healthy cat breed with no special health problems.

The Designer Cat for the Rich

The California Spangled cat has often been referred to as “the designer cat for the rich”. It does have a different history than that of other cat breeds.
Normally a new cat breed is introduced at a major cat shows.

This was not the case with the California Spangled. This new cat breed was introduced to the public a mail-order catalog.

The Christmas catalog from the Nieman Marcus Department store contained a surprising and very unusual offer in 1986. Customers could order a kitten of this new breed for $1,400.

Even more shocking was the fact the advertisement stated they could order a California Spangled kitten in a color that matched the colors in their home.

Selling kittens in a mail-order catalog certainly got the attention of the public. Many encouraged people to boycott the Nieman Marcus Department store stating it was unethical to sell living animals in that manner.

Even though lots of people protested against the practice, the orders for the kittens kept coming and the waiting list to purchase the American Spangled grew to several hundred orders.

The California Spangled Association was formed with Paul Casey as its president. The new breed has also been recognized the TICA and the ACA.

Maybe by creating a domestic cat which resembled the leopard he could make certain people rethink before purchasing merchandise made from large wild cats as the leopard and the ocelot.

American Bobtail Cat Breed

The American Bobtail is easily recognized by its short and bushy tail.  This breed comes in a variety of colors. There are both long-haired and short-haired Bobtail cats.

Other features include a broad head with large eyes. The front legs of the cat are a little shorter than the back legs.

These cats are born with short tails. The tails are normally between one and four inches long.

In the feline world the tail has an important function. All feline animals use their tail to keep their balance.

The American Bobtail is handicapped by its short tail. This breed does not enjoy climbing.

As we can imagine climbing up on really high places must be a pretty scary experience when keeping a perfect balance is unrealistic.

Only the few brave ones will take the extreme climbing challenge.

Temperament

American Bobtail cats make awesome pets for families with children. These cats love to be around people.

They seem to be very patient with children.

This is the cat breed you may want to consider if you have or plan to have other pets in your home.

This dear feline gets along great with people young or old as well as other animals in the household.

The American Bobtail may not be a good climber, but does compensate with other amazing talents.

This cat is the “Houdini” of the cat world. It is magically to witness narrow and tight places the Bobtail succeeds to escape from!

Many claim this breed is “dog-like”. This may perhaps not be considered a compliment among the felines. But in all honesty these cats simply love to play “fetch”.

These cats are intelligent and very sensitive to the moods and temperaments of the humans they live with.

The American Bobtail will respond to the mood you are in. You cannot put on a “brave face” and try to mislead this cat.

The American Bobtail can always tell when you are feeling down. The sweetest thing is that this cat will try it’s hardest to “comfort” you!

Amercian Bobtail Founding Parents

The most common belief is that the American Bobtails are descendants of a stay male tabby kitten found in Arizona.

Brenda and John Sanders happened were on vacation in Arizona and decided to adopt the stay kitten. They named the kitten Yodie.

Nature took its course and Yodie later mated with Mishi, their Siamese cat.

As it turned out some of the kittens in the litter had unusual short tails.

To make a long story short Yodie and Mishi became the founding parents of a new cat breed.

A friend of the couple suggested the name “American Bobtail”.

The Swimming Cat

If you have believed that all cats hate water it is time you were introduced to the Turkish Van cat.

This cat actually loves water and it enjoys swimming as a leisure activity.

This cat is attracted to water.

That is something you need to take into consideration and make necessary the precautions if you have a swimming pool.

If you do have a swimming pool make sure it is super easy for your cat to get out of the pool.

You may need to keep your bathroom door closed and be careful to keep your toilet seat down.

The Turkish Van cat is known by several different names; the “Turkish Swimming cat”, “Van cat”, “Turkish cat” or simply just the “Swimming cat”.

Temperament

This cat breed does not appreciated rough handling of any sort. They do enjoy playing, often games like fetch.

These cats are active and need space.

They also need some quiet time.

These are intelligent and affectionate cats, but they are not your typical lap cat.

The Turkish Van would not be your first choice if you have small children. These cats are best suited for adults.

Appearance

The Turkish Van has long and silky hair. The cat does not have an undercoat, making the grooming easier. They will need some combing to keep the hairs from tangling.

Turkish Van cats in the West are white except their tail and head which are auburn (reddish-brown) in color.

Their eyes can be either amber or blue or odd-eyed (one amber, one blue). They are normally very healthy cats.

Turkish Van Cat History

The Turkish Van cat originates from Eastern Turkey near Lake Van. It is close to the Iranian border.

Interestingly the local people at Lake Van in Turkey consider the true Turkish Van cat to be completely white and preferably odd-eyed.

The Turkish Van may remind you of the Turkish Angora. At first glance they do seem similar. The Turkish Van is more muscular and a little larger than the Turkish Angora.

This is an ancient cat breed and these cats have been highly valued in Turkey for centuries.

Oddly they were late coming to the West.

The first two cats arrived in Great Britain in 1955.

Two British photographers named Laura Lushington and Sonia Halliday were given two of these cats as a gift when they visited the Lake Van region in Turkey on a photography mission for the Turkish Tourist Board.

The cats were named Van Guzilli Iskenderum (female) and Van Attala (male).

They brought the cats back to Britain and absolutely feel in love with these very extraordinary cats. They revisited Turkey and a few more of these cats were sent to Britain. A breeding program started.

It would be another fourteen years before the Turkish Van was recognized as pedigree cats.

There was a lot of dispute about the name and the records of the ancestry. When they got that sorted out the cat breed was finally recognized in Britain in 1969.

The name Turkish Cat was agreed upon. Later the name was changed to the Turkish Van Cat to make a clearer distinction from the Turkish Angora cat.

The Turkish Van arrived much later in the United States. The first official registration in the United States did not occur before 1985.

Turkish Angora Cat Breed

The Turkish Angora cat is an ancient cat breed named after the capital city of Turkey, Ankara.

Angora was the old spelling of the name. The Turks changed the spelling of their capital city in 1930.

Appearance

The Turkish Angora is a longhaired cat, but does not have an undercoat.

This makes the grooming so much easier. The hairs are longer around the neck, tail and stomach.

This gives the Turkish Angora a more elegant look.

The fur is especially soft and silky and a true delight to run your hands through.

Their eyes are almond shaped and can be most any color, also odd-eyed. The ears are pointed and triangular.

These are healthy cats and have a normal lifespan from 15-20 years.

Color

Traditionally the Turkish Angora cat is pure white, but other colors do absolutely occur.

The Turks even had special names for the Angora cats that were not all white.

A red tabby Angora cat was referred to as “sarmen”.

A silver colored tabby Angora cat went by the name “teku”.

Temperament

The cats are vocal. The true Angora (Turkish Angora) is not as vocal as the British Angora.

The Turkish Angora cats are gentle and kind cats. They do love to play, climb and jump, but not consistently.

They do also need the possibly to have some peace and quiet to be content.

Favorite Cat Breed of Marie Antoinette

This cat breed became a favorite among the royalty and the aristocratic, especially in France and Great Britain.

It is well known that the Turkish Angora cat was the favorite of Marie Antoinette (1755-1793).

She had six of these cats. The story goes that she sent her cats on a ship bound for America when she was planning her escape.

As we all know she was executed before she got the chance to follow her cats across the Atlantic.

Drop in popularity

The Turkish Angora cats had a huge drop in popularity after the introduction of the Persian cat.

By the end of the 19th century the cat breed had disappeared from all cat shows in the West and were nearly forgotten.

Turkish Angora is the true Angora

Many do get confused about why there are two different kinds of cats called Angora.

The Turkish Angora is the original ancient cat breed.

The British Angora, often only called the Angora cat is a fairly new breed.

It was in the 1960’s that a few breeders in Britain set out to reproduce the lost Angora cats using Oriental cats in their breeding program.

These new Angora cats were very similar to the original Turkish Angora cats except these cats were more vocal and the head shape differed from the true Angora cats.

It was in the same time frame discovered that the true Angora cats actually were still in existence.

As it turned out the zoo keepers at the zoo in Ankara had been doing some serious breeding with the original Angora cats.

In able to distinguish the two different cats both with the name Angora it was decided that the true Angora should be known as the Turkish Angora cat.

The first Turkish Angora cats arrives in the United States

Two American breeders named Walter and Leisa Grant were given permission to buy two true Angora cats from the zoo in Ankara, Turkey.

They bought a male Angora cat named Yildiz, he was odd-eyed. They also purchased a female cat named Yildizcik, she was amber-eyed.

Both cats were white. These two precious cats arrived in the United States in 1962.

In 1966 two new original Turkish Angoras were purchased; a female cat named Yaman (odd-eyed) and a male named Marvis (amber-eyed).

These four cats became the foremothers and forefathers of the Turkish Angora cats in the United States.

A few years later breeders in Britain also bought original Angora cats from the Ankara zoo.

Cat breeders in other countries did the same.

The original Angora cats had yet again deservingly been acknowledged in the West. This graceful and elegant cat is on its way to regain its past glory.