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Tiffany cat
Tiffany cat - Arthur
photograph ©lapietra (Marianne)
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If the
"discovery" story is to be taken as fact then this cat breed is as
natural a breed as the other well known natural breeds such as the Norwegian
Forest cat and Maine
Coon to name a couple. Except the moment
of "discovery" happened more recently, in 1967.
As is often the case the history is a little cloudy. I feel the history
of a cat breed's creation and development is quite important as to
certain extent, it defines the breed. This is particularly so
in
the case of the Thai
(Traditional Siamese), for example.
My reading of
the history of the Tiffany cat is that either this cat is a discovered
cat (in 1967) and bred from thereon, or the breed is the creation of
crossing Foreign Longhair/Angora,
Havana, and Abyssinian cats.
In 1967 a cattery owner, Jennie Robinson, bought two young semi-foreign long haired
chocolate colored cats, one male and one female as part of the sale of
an entire estate (this may have been on the death of the previous
keeper). These two cats mated and in "breeding true" all the offspring
where the same as their parents. The color is a "self color" (solid
color with no banding on the hair shafts).
In Canada in 1973, and running almost in parallel with the USA
creation/development of this breed, it is said that the same type
of cat, of unknown ancestry, as had happened in the
USA, turned
up at the home of a Canadian. Thus began the Tiffany cat's
history
in Canada, from which point, breeders began to develop the breed.
Arthur
- photograph ©lapietra (Marianne)
The
Name
Another confusing area is the name of this breed. You'll see this cat
breed called both Tiffany
and Chantilly. They describe the same cat breed. What apparently
happened is that British breeders of the Burmilla
began calling the long haired version of their
cat breed, "Tiffanie". The long haired Burmilla is described as the Tiffanie on the
GCCF website (2008). To try and avoid confusion the Canadian breeders
coined the name "Chantilly" for their cat. As a result the cat breed
has two names. The name selected depends on which cat association is
used for registration.
TICA and CFA don't register the Tiffany or Chantilly. This is a rare
cat breed on my reckoning. The ACFA register the Chantilly as
"EXP" (presumed to mean "experimental"). The Traditional Cat
Association calls this breed "Tiffany/Chantilly". The Cat Fanciers
Federation don't seem to recognize the Tiffany cat. I wonder whether
the confused history/development has something to to do with the
reluctance of cat
associations to recognize this cat breed. Tell
me please (takes you to an easy to use form in a new window).
It seems that in Australia the Tiffany is a cross between the Burmese
and Birman (although
the Australian Tiffany breeder (see below), which provided
this information from their website spells this breed "Burman"). Sorry
about this but there is an Australian Tiffanie as well. This is a
Longhaired Burmilla and Chinchilla Persian
hybrid. Because there is some confusion over the naming of breeds
Tiffanie, Tiffany, Longhaired Burmilla etc., I decided I'd try and
explain the difference. See the explanation here.
One last point this cat has been called "Mahogany".
Golden
Eye - Arthur's lovely eye color - photo ©lapietra
(Marianne)
The
Appearance
Marianne's pictures of Arthur pretty well tells you what you
need to know.
Arthur is a chocolate Tiffany cat, the original color. The chocolate
coloring has lighter patches and picks up the light beautifully as
shown in the heading picture.
Through outcrossing, the coat colors have been expanded to include:
cinnamon, fawn, lilac, blue and black. Patterns have also been
introduced including: ticked (the Abyssinian
is the classic ticked cat), mackerel (see this pattern on the Toyger,
for example) and spotted (the Bengal
is the classic spotted cat).
Eye color (as seen in the photograph above) is gold to deep yellow.
Maintenance
Being semi-longhaired means a certain amount of upkeep but less than
the high
maintenance Persian,
which is long haired. In addition there is no
undercoat, which reduces matting. The Tiffany cat has nice ear
furnishings (ear hair - see the best ear furnishings on this Maine
Coon or this one - both open in a new
window and they are special cats). Their coat is nice and silky to the
touch, rich in color and very full.
I am pleased to say that breeders of this cat are concerned with
retaining the original conformation, which is very normal and balanced,
a great asset for a cat breed. All the most popular breeds have a
balanced appearance.
Marianne, who lives with Arthur featured on this page, says he is very
low maintenance, partly because he is so healthy. I love you Arthur.
Oh,
I forgot to mention, Tiffany cats have lovely plumed tails just like
Arthur's. Another cat with a fantastic plumed tail is the Turkish
Angora.
Yes,
its the gorgeous Arthur again, I guess he is asking
for
something to eat, I know that look - photo ©lapietra
About
Arthur
He's
very healthy, vociferous, opinionated (obviously very intelligent
therefore), sociable and cuddly. What more could you ask for in a
companion? I'll bet Marianne has long conversations with him....
Tiffany
cats, generally, are affectionate and companionable, striking a
nice middle ground in terms of activity and mischievousness. Like most
cats they will not appreciate being alone a lot.
About
Marianne
Marianne
Stone's Flickr name is lapietra. She
kindly
allowed
me to publish her photographs on this page to illustrate this cat
breed. Arthur said it was OK too. She lives in San Francisco, USA. She
likes photography and sharing her images with others. She loves Arthur.
Click on
this link to go to her Flickr page on Arthur.
Breeders
As
I mentioned, this cat is rare so there are few breeders:
Purrfect
Essentials
This
cattery is, I believe, located in Australia but the website is not
clear on this, which surprises me. They breed Burmese and Tiffany cats.
But they describe the Tiffany as a cross between a Burmese and Burman.
Their website does, however, come up on page one of a Google serach,
hence the listing here.
This is
the only website (not being part of a breeder listings site)
that is listed in the first 3 pages of a Google search result for
this breed. Yet I am not sure about this cattery. Please reassure me by
telling me here.
Foreign
Type -
{go
back to where you came from}
In the cat
fancy (the cat world) this means a long, svelte but muscular
cat like the Modern
Siamese.
Semi-foreign is a less extreme than the
look demonstrated by the Modern Siamese in body and head shape. To me
the Tiffany cat is not semi-foreign as he looks more balanced and
"normal".
Sources:
- Wikipedia
- http://www.breedlist.com/
- http://en.mimi.hu/
- http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/True_breeding
- http://www.breeds.traditionalcats.com
- Cat
Fanciers
From
Tiffany Cat to Home Page
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