Additional information on the history of the LaPerm breed
by Jerrie Wolfe
Close-up of a LaPerm coat
First off this is a Native American breed, which developed on its own for 10 years, as a colony of barn cats, before anyone tried to control breeding. (1982-1992) It is doubtful that the allowed out-cross to the domestic LH/SH will end in 2015. Those breeders actually active in CFA and are members of the CFA LaPerm Breed Council will keep asking for an extension. The use of the Ocicat in CFA was only allowed for a 2 year period (2001-2002) and there were only 5 litters of Ocicat out-crosses produced, from 3 different Ocicats. This does NOT make them widely used. For those who do not know how the Ocicat was developed, they used Abyssinian and Siamese crosses and later added American Shorthairs. Abyssinians are still an allowed out cross until 2015. But the LaPerm in CFA stopped using Ocicats in 2002. There is only ONE registry in the world that allows other purebreds to be used as an out cross for the LaPerm, that is the GCCF in the UK. The French LOOF only allows LaPerm x LaPerm breeding, all other registries only allow the domestic SH/LH to be registered as LaPerms. TICA was the first registry to recognize the LaPerm and is still has the largest number of LaPerms registered.  "Tipi" a long haired LaPerm Bred by Jerrie Photo copyright Helmi Flick How the LaPerm got it's Nameas told by Linda KoehlHi everybody. I just made a great buy on the Golden Gate Bridge and I will sell it to you for $100,000.00. If you believe that you will believe anything you see in print. O.K. people, this is the truth from the horses mouth. I have never been a hairdresser. Now I will tell once and for all where the name "La Perm" came from. A long, long time ago, The Dalles, where I live, was a great meeting place for many tribes to gather and trade. When they described this place they referred to it as the place below Celilo Falls where the rapids, ripples and curls were in the river. The Falls no longer exist, they were covered when The Dalles Dam was built. As might be expected the whole river has been changed in appearance also. The ripples were for the shorthaired LP's which has a somewhat "marcelled" appearance, the curls in the rapids were for the longhaired LP's. The name Le Dalles was given to this area by the French and Belgian fur traders who populated the area. According to one story it referred to the flat rocks in the river which reminded them of street stones back in Europe. The original cats reminded me of someone with a bad permanent. I originally wanted "The Dalles La Perm", somehow it ended up being just La Perm, it was not intended to be "cutesy". There was one suggestion of "The Dallies" (Ugh) Someone please file this someplace in case someone asks for info. Regards, Linda (Duly filed for prosperity Linda!!!) Marcelled: A hairstyle characterized by deep regular waves made by a heated curling iron. (After Marcel Grateau (1852-1936), French hairdresser.) Jerrie Wolfe TICA LaPerm Breed Chair CFA Breed Council Member V.P. LaPerm Fanciers International jerrier@gotsky.com Arohanui LaPerms http://www.lapermcats.info Long standing breeder of LaPerms, who has titled more LaPerms than anyone, including 2 Supremes, the first SH QuadGrandChampion. From Additional information on the history of the LaPerm breed to LaPerm Cat
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