Turkish Angora

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.