Modern Siamese Cats

Modern Siamese cat

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Modern Siamese cats photo ©copyright Helmi Flick

  • A page (new window) on the pointed auspicious cat (19th century) showing a semi-cobby body type of the original Siamese in Siam.

Note: the article is split into several sections for technical reasons. There are links at the base of each section.

Introduction

This is one of the most recognised and yet most controversial cat breeds3. It is the breed of the stars! People such as Jean Cocteau and Anna Pavlova lived with Siamese cats although then they were not of the modern type. Jean Cocteau kept a traditional Siamese cat called Madeleine. Other stars who kept Siamese cats (pre- 1960s or so these would have been traditional Siamese cats):

  • Vivien Leigh
  • Ava Gardner
  • Errol Flynn
  • Carole Lombard & Clark Gable
  • Olivia de Havilland
  • Jayne Mansfield and more..

Of the modern Siamese, Angelica Houston apparently lives with one3.  It is almost surprising to recall that the original Siamese cats had naturally kinked tails – now outlawed under breed standards. Cross eyed cats were not uncommon. Selective breeding over about 50 years and evolving breed standards have altered all that.

The US cats are breed to greater extremes than UK modern Siamese cats3.

The modern Siamese cat is sleek and elegant with slender legs. The body type is oriental in cat fancy language. It shares this body shape with the Balinese (modern), Oriental Shorthair and Oriental Longhair (these are related cat breeds). The ears are large and the head wedge shaped. Lets not forget the long whippy tail1.

If you go to a big cat show such as the GCCF Supreme Cat Show or for example the National Cat Club annual show in London, you will see Modern Siamese cats. Their appearance catches the eye. To a person who might keep cats but who is not a cat fancier, they might not be the kind of Siamese cat with which you are familiar. They look a little fragile and have small heads to the untrained eye.

If you search for photographs of Modern Siamese cats on the Flickr website (which has tens of millions of photographs on it and is the biggest photo site on the internet), the search results produce about 90% Traditional Siamese cats and 10% Modern Siamese cats with a small number in between on my reckoning (at 2008). The ones in between I call classic Siamese cats or Thai cats.

The people who upload photographs to Flickr are “ordinary” people. The people who exhibit and compete at cat shows are cat breeders and serious cat lovers (cat fanciers). I conclude that the Modern Siamese has been bred (some would say to a slightly extreme level) for the breeders and cat fanciers (and not for the general market) and the extreme look has been gradually developed over decades in partnership with show judges in interpreting the breed standard, which is open to a fairly wide interpretation.

Until recently cat fanciers couldn’t show Traditional Siamese cats. Now the breed is gaining recognition and has been renamed the Thai on the insistence, it seems, of the Modern Siamese cat breeders and recognized by TICA. As I understand it, some Thai cat breeders do not consider their cats to be a form of Siamese cat but a new breed. I disagree with this. TICA breed standard supports me. You can see the comments of one Thai cat breeder on the Thai cats page (link above).

I don’t know if the renaming will work for or against the Traditional Siamese cat breeders. Click on the following link, if you’d like to read about the History of the Siamese Cat (in some detail and with illustrations). Tell me your preference and vote here. When you vote you are taken to a results page:

Please search using the search box at the top of the site. You are bound to find what you are looking for.

4 thoughts on “Modern Siamese Cats”

  1. I live in Long Beach MS and I can not find a breeder in Mississippi of Siamese. I want another one and want to find a good breeder that has reasonably priced kittens. I would not be opposed to a older kitten up to 6months. Anyone out there that can send a website or phone number of a breeder please I need all the help I can get..thanks so much

    Reply

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