Celtic Shorthair cat

The Celtic Shorthair cat is registered with the World Cat Federation (WCF). There is incidentally a Celtic Long Hair & Semi Long Hair Cat Society, which is based in Wales. This club is called "Celtic" because it is Welsh but there is no connection with the Celtic Shorthair cat (I guess for obvious reasons).

This brings me nicely onto the naming of the cat breed. What does "Celtic" mean? The Celtic nations today are set out in the map to the right - i.e. where one of the Celtic languages is spoken. This map published under Wikimedia® creative commons license license = Attribution-ShareAlike License. The author is QuartierLatin1968.

However most countries of Central and Western Europe have been influenced by the Celts. This indicates to me that the name for this cat breed originates in the concept that the Celtic Shorthair cat is a cat of all places in Europe. In other words a standard mixed breed domestic cat that we would see in any large parts of Europe. I am guessing. If the person(s) who made the name could leave a comment that would be great.

I have been unable to find a picture of the Celtic Shorthair cat nor a breeder (but see below). But I think we can visualize a nicely balanced standard looking cat that we are familiar with. This is strongly reinforced in the WCF breed standard which states that this cat "corresponds to an average European cat". It goes on to say that there should be no hybridization (i.e. no formal development with outcrossing bringing in other breed types, appearances). The Celtic SH is not accepted by the WCF in the pointed coat, cinnamon and lilac or the dilute versions of these colors.

The better known shorthair cat breeds, the American, the British and the European Shorthair cats all started from the good old mixed breed domestic cat. So where does this leave us? How is this cat breed different to the European Shorthair. The European Shorthair has similar restrictions as far as I know on outcrossing (wrong, please tell me in a comment). The answer I think is this (and the answer is not easy to find).

The Celtic Shorthair cat is the WCF's name for the European Shorthair cat. You can see a picture of the European Shorthair cat on this page: American Shorthair, British Shorthair, and European Shorthair cats



Celtic Shorthair cat to British Shorthair cat