Lilac Pointed British Shorthair

Lionel in Snow - British Shorthair cat (white with lilac points), a photo by steviewonderous on Flickr.

His name is Lionel and he is a lilac pointed British Shorthair cat. He looks magnificent in the snow.

Although the British Shorthair is well known for its blue (grey) coat the cat associations allow a wide range of coat types and pointing is one of them.

I find that there is a very fine differences sometimes between blue pointing and lilac pointed. Lionel looks like he has blue pointing!

British Shorhair Most Registered Cat Breed by GCCF

The British Shorthair has increased in popularity while the Persian has decreased over the past several years.

I present below a spreadsheet from the GCCF figures showing registrations. Numbers of registrations indicates popularity, indirectly. This is for the UK only, of course.

On my website I have a world popularity poll and the Brit SH is 9th. It is a very popular cat breed. The lower placing is due to the fact that most votes are from America, where the Maine Coon is the most popular. But America has the biggest cat market in the world by far some ten times bigger than in the UK.

British Shorthair Breed Council CFA

The British Shorthair breed council at the Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA), the largest as far as I am aware is on this page of the internet. Breed councils set the standards. It is made up of breeders and experienced cat fancy people.