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Collage of various cat breeds at cat shows
randomly chosen - Cat Breeds Places of Origin
Cat Breeds
Places of Origin is not going to be that easy as the history of some
breeds is not that clear. Some of the natural and very long
standing breeds are particularly clear such as the Siamese
cat or Turkish
Van. Even the names of these cat breeds tell us all we need to
know, almost. However, with
the natural breeds we can only locate the country of origin usually
(the Turkish Van is an exception for example).
When the cat breed has been created fairly recently it should be
possible to locate the town or the exact address because the creation
and development would have been carried out by a cat breeder. The
problem here is that things get a little hazy and the breeder is no
longer in business and so on. Sometimes we know the breeder who created
the breed but not the exact location or at least that seems to be the
case. One example is the Toyger. I
know who created the breed and her cattery (although I misspelled it!)
but for the time being can't find out where it is (other than the USA).
Factors which can present obstacles to clarity in preparing Cat Breeds
Places of Origin are:
- Sheer passing of time. When a
cat is not yet a breed but will one day become one (say, for example,
the British
Shorthair - a moggie until the late 1800s in England) no one is
keeping records etc. There are a number of cats that started out as
feral cats and/or mixed breed cats and which were refined to become
show cats. These cats are the natural cats and they are still in both
forms. For example, there are still feral or mixed breed British
Shorthair cats in Britain (of course). And there are still feral Egyptian Mau
cats in Egypt. The history of some breeds are so long that we can only
generally guess as to the origin and this naturally leads to a variety
of thoughts as to how it happened. A classic is the Abyssinian
cat. I have my theory on this cat based on the evidence. But all
theories are probably as good as each other.
- Gradual evolution of a cat
breed can present a problem. An example is the Maine Coon
cat. The precursor to this breed came over with the settlers from
Europe in the early 1600s and the cat developed from that time,
naturally. What is the place of origin? I decided on Maine! But in
reality the cat would have developed/evolved in other places over the
long time (almost 300 years) from importation into North America and
being refined into a cat breed.
- The origins
of breeds through mutations can sometimes be muddied by the simple fact
that the mutation would not be confined to one place; why should it?
The origin of the breed is anywhere, in effect. However, in these
cases the origin can be said to be the place where the particular
breeder who developed the breed found the mutated cat. Examples are the
rex cats and the Sphynxs (hairless cats). See Cornish Rex
and Sphynx
cat.
- Cat breeders don't sometimes
(understandably) provide addresses of their cattery so even if one
knows the cattery that created a hybrid cat breed the location remains
a bit of an obstacle!
- Sometimes I get a feeling
that a little bit of judicious glossing up of the origin of a breed has
taken place (or am I being unfair?). In which case an article on Cat
Breeds Places of Origin is going to be tricky. One such example is the Singapura cat.
This cat should come from the drains of Singapore as a feral cat but
can we find small cats lurking around the drains of Singapore that look
like the Singapura? From
Cat Breeds Places of Origin to Home Page.
Cat Breeds Places of Origin - Some more on cat history:
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