Brazilian Shorthair cat

The Brazilian Shorthair cat is a "current cat", meaning neither experimental nor proposed. It would seem to be recognized by the Brazilian Cat Federation (this would seem to be at "initial registration" stage, similar to experimental registration, perhaps). The Brazilian Cat Federation is affiliated to the World Cat Federation (WCF).

Yet I cannot find a picture of this cat breed nor a website for the Brazilian Cat Federation. There is a Clube Brazilero do Gato (Brazilian Cat Club) that is an affiliated member of FIFe. Yet I cannot see any reference to the Brazilian Shorthair cat on a translation of the club's website (although I may have missed it - there were no pictures of cats that I could see). Clubs normally illustrate their website with some pictures of the various cat breeds. Anyway, the point is - no pictures. But, the Clube Brazilero do Gato being a member of FIFe are making proposals (not sure how advanced these are) to FIFe for the cats acceptance by FIFe. In addition the Brazilian Cat Federation is seeking WCF's recognition of this cat breed. The WCF appears to have named the cat "Keltic Shorthair" as they felt the phenotype was similar to ancient European cats; the Brazilian Shorthair having evolved from the European cats imported by European settlers.

This cat is a naturally occurring feral cat of Brazil that has been turned into a purebred and pedigree cat. This is relatively commonly encountered in the world cat fancy. It has to be the case as about 150 years ago there were no cat breeds. Breeds that come to mind that are not hybrids of other purebred cats (i.e. created) are:

American Keudo (a utilitarian cat, created from barn cats)
Nebelung - one of the grey cat breeds and created from "ordinary" non purebred cats
Ragdoll - created from mixed breed cats
Maine Coon - originally a barn cat
Egyptian Mau - this is still a feral cat in Egypt but was refined by cat breeders.

There are many more examples.....see the home page list and the spill over page for a full list of cat breeds.

So, the Brazilan Shorthair cat follows in the footsteps of many a distinguished and well known purebred cat. If we cannot find pictures I will show a mixed breed Brazilian cat that I think is typical of the kind of cat found in Brazil. In my travels over the Internet it seems to me that the feral cats of Brazil are typically well balanced normal looking cats with coat colors that cover, solid and white, calico, tabby and tabby and white. I would expect therefore that the Brazilian Shorthair has a wide range of allowable coat types (is there a breed standard? - there would seem to be, see below) which encompass the coat types mentioned.


A Brazilian cat, Rio de Janeiro - photo by HelenaN. This is a calico cat, tortoiseshell and white. These seem to be typical of Brazil and the head conformation perfectly matches the description below. So, I'd think that this is not far off what a Brazilian Shorthair purebred cat would look like.

Sarah Hartwell describes the cat as having a head conformation between the European Shorthair (a cobby cat -see British Shorthair) and the Oriental Shorthair (a slender cat). On that basis this cat is on the slender side of average if the body conformation follows the head shape which is the case usually.

Carmen Olivieri (www.petbrazil.com.br) provides the best information it seems. Although I am a little disturbed by the picture of a tricolor hamster or guinea pig illustrating the article! Anyway, press on...........The breed standard (I have not seen the actual breed standard) states that the Brazilian Shorthair cat is neither compact nor elegant (normal/average looking therefore). The head should be slightly longer than wide (the picture of the Brazilian cat above illustrates this I believe). All colors are accepted and the coat should be short and dense and tight to skin.

It would seem that this cat is at an early stage of development with the objective of preserving the classic Brazilian feral/domestic cat, which possibly has particular characteristics unique to the area.

The Briazilian Shorthair cat is considered healthy, lively and intelligent. Update: I have just noticed that the well known author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a book called "The Brazilian cat". Has anyone read the book and what is it about?

Brazilian Shorthair cat to mixed breed cats

Photo: published under a creative commons license - Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic.

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