What is this strange looking cat with odd ears?

This picture is on the Reddit.com website and the person who posted it said that this is a 'very rare and strange cat'. It is a strange-looking cat (but not very rare) because the photograph captures nicely, almost in silhouette, the curled-back ears. It looks like everything is against what we normally associate with the domestic cat appearance with their ever-alert ears pointing forwards to collect the sound waves heading towards them.

What is this strange looking cat with odd ears? Image: Reddit.com

Domestic cats have really good hearing, better than human hearing. Their large ear flaps which can rotate around the head thanks to the 30+ muscles controlling the them, help in picking up the soundwaves.

So, when the ears fold back like this it must affect their hearing and it is due to a genetic mutation. It does look very strange and a bit disturbing to be honest. But this is an American Curl purebred cat (probably) and if he is not a pedigree cat, he'll be a random bred version. The purebreds are deliberately created by breeders to be sold to the public.

It's quite a rare purebred cat and not that popular compared, for example, to the Persian or Maine Coon cat breeds.

It gives the cat a kind of devilish look and they come in shorthaired and longhaired varieties. Essentially this cat is a standard random bred cat with curly ears. There is nothing extreme about the cat's appearance.

American Curl cats are born with straight ears and the ear flaps do not curl back as you see in the photograph until the kittens are 2 to 10 days old. The kittens enter a transitional phase that lasts until about 16 weeks of age and during this time the ears begin to change. They may even 'uncurl' or curl more tightly.

The cat in the photograph has particularly curly ears and would be of show cat quality.

RELATED: American Curl Cat: 12 facts.

I've seen American curl ears that don't curl quite so much. The genetic mutation causes the cartilage in the ear flaps to take up this peculiar shape. The mutated gene is dominant.

As mentioned, the ears curl to different degrees and in the 1st° curl version of this cat, only the tips of the ears curl back. These cats are considered to be pet quality which means that they are not going to be show cats. The 2nd° curl of the ears is an arc ranging from 45° to less than 90°. Cats with secondary degree curled may be considered for breeding purposes but they are not of show quality.

Finally, the third-degree curl of the ears is the curliest. The ears curl from 90 to 180° with the tips not touching the back of the ear or the head and pointing towards the center of the base of the skull. Cats with third-degree curl combined with the correct overall look of the cat as per breed standard would be of show quality.

The cat breed was commenced when in June 1981 in Lakewood, California a longhaired silky black female kitten with these strange ears wandered up to the home of Joe and Grace Ruga. They named the stray cat Shulamith. This cat was the foundation cat for the entire breed and they set about creating the breed from thereon.

Six years later The International Cat Association accepted the American Curl longhair for championship status. They are now recognised for championship status in most organisations in North America.

Here is a calico American Curl. Photo by Helmi Flick. The ears are not as impressive.

Alternative cat show commentary of a Persian cat by a veterinarian

Alternative cat show commentary of a Persian cat by a veterinarian. Screenshot.

This video appeals to me because veterinarians have the status in society to have their voice heard and listened to. And there is a need to educate the public about the irresponsible breeding of Persian cats which has been going on for donkey's years with the acceptance of the cat associations. People should not be creating animals that are inherently unhealthy. Simple. Full stop. And yet it happens all the time because appearance trumps health in the cat fancy. It is worse for dog breeds. There are some horrendous stories. 

For instance, the Boxer has 74 inherited health problems thanks to unregulated selective breeding over a very long time which has reduced this breed to a living catalogue of major health issues.

Here is Ben's video on Persians.

I suppose I should not harp on about the Persian too much but it is the paradigm example of cat breeding gone wrong. Someone in the cat fancy decided in the 1950s that flattening the face of this once beautiful cat (c.f. the doll-face Persian) would make it more attractive. How did they figure that one out?

Clearly the peke-faced, punch-face in India, Persian is less attractive than the original Persian. The point is that it is more interesting looking. It is more extreme in appearance and people like something different whatever the 'product' is.

But in flattening the face they distorted the internal anatomy in the head which leads to health issues and breathing problems.

35% of Persians also suffer from PKD; polycystic kidney disease. This describes cysts on the kidneys. Not good, right? People should protest and stop buying the flat-faced Persian until the cat associations make it mandatory to breed healthy Persians by disqualifying all flat-faced ones from cat show competitions.

Musrafy Kazimir a male brown spotted Siberian awarded best in show overall by GCCF

This is Musrafy Kazimir, a male, brown spotted Siberian cat who has been awarded the overall best in show by the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF) at the weekend in a programme celebrating the centenary of the organisation. 

Musrafy Kazimir a male brown spotted Siberian awarded best in show overall by GCCF. Photo: Twitter.

Musrafy Kazimir a male brown spotted Siberian awarded best in show overall by GCCF. Photo: Twitter.

It took place in Kenilworth, Warwickshire. Also below is a short video about the breeder of this magnificent cat. She is a Russian lady. Russians do breed good cats; it has to be said. She must be based in the UK. She says that the Siberian is alleged to be hypoallergenic. There may be some credence in that but I'm not sure that it is fully established. 

Here he is being judged - manhandled, er 'womanhandled' by the show judge.

Musrafy Kazimir being judged the show. Photo: Twitter.

A lot of people say that it is true but what might be truer is that some cats are more hypoallergenic than others but in general all domestic cats are not hypoallergenic which means that they cause an allergic reaction in about 10% of people who are predisposed to the allergen in their saliva which is Fel D 1.

This is wrong: '20 cat breeds that are very independent'

Newsweek presents an article entitled 20 cat breeds that are very independent. They quote Vicki Jo Harrison, the president of the International Cat Association (TICA). They wanted her assistance on the sort of breeds that are more independent than others which would suit people who are at work all day and away from their home.

Cat home alone crying. Image: screenshot

I'm going to disagree strongly with both Newsweek and Ms Harrison even though she is the president of a very well-known cat association.

I'll tell you why I can disagree with her. The personalities of the various cat breeds are described on the Internet on websites and in books. Everyone has had a say at it. Often the same words are recirculated around the Internet. One author will copy another. These descriptions have little value in truth. That's the first difficulty in trying to pick out a breed which has a personality which allows them to be alone all day.

The second problem is this. Foundation cats are not selected by breeders for their breeding lines on the basis of their personality. Or if they do select for personality, it is a secondary issue. The primary criterion is the appearance of the cat. If all cat breeders selectively bred for character, you might be able to put some faith in the descriptions of the personalities of these breeds. But they don't. And even then, the base character; the feline character will dominate and domestic cats need company.

Therefore, we have to rely on the overall feline character. What I mean is that the character of the purebred cats is the same as the character of the non-purebred cats. It is the feline character; the raw cat within the domestic cat. This is a character which is aligned to the wild cat ancestor for obvious reasons because the domestic cat at heart is a domesticated North African wildcat.

On this argument all the cats of the various of cat breeds have very similar characters or personalities. Therefore, you can't differentiate one from the other. Therefore, you cannot select a cat breed which is more independent-minded than another. That's my argument, in perhaps simplistic terms.

There might be some small variations in character between the cat breeds. For example, Siamese cats are described as being loyal and they are more vocal. Persian cats are more laid back and decorative. The Ragdoll is meant to be super-laid-back and suited to home life. But you'll get aggressive Ragdoll cats sometimes depending upon the life experience. This is not a precise science and I think it is unreasonable and unrealistic to write an article about cat breeds which are 'very independent'.

CLICK FOR PAGES ON CAT PERSONALITY TYPES

Also, they list 20 cat breeds. That's a very large number but what they're really saying is that the domestic cat per se is quite independent-minded in any case. That is what people think. But even that is wrong because domestic cats need the company of their human caregiver. They are domestic cats. They are socialised to be with humans. That is their raison d'être. Divorced from their humans, they can suffer from stress which can lead to conditions such as idiopathic cystitis. This might be caused by separation anxiety, a condition which is often talked about on the Internet.

There will be countless millions of cats suffering from stress because they have been labelled as being independent and therefore ignored. Some people might go to work confident in the belief that their cat is just fine being left alone for 10 hours. In my honest opinion they are not fine under those circumstances. Watch some videos of cats left alone all day and tell me they are fine. They are desperate for the return of their caregiver.

Newsweek and Ms Harrison are wrong to discuss the cat breeds like this.

Are dwarf cats healthy?

This is a perennial discussion. It resurfaces all the time. The health of dwarf cats is a hot topic. It is the reason why the cat associations have not registered the dwarf cats. They are associated with potential if not actual ill-health. And after all, this is unsurprising because dwarf cats "suffer" from dwarfism. This is a serious anatomical deficiency brought about by a genetic mutation (sometimes other causes). They suffer from osteochondrodysplasia. This affects the development of the bones in the limbs so that they have short limbs but normal-sized bodies. It also affects the cartilage as far as I'm aware.

Lillieput, a Munchkin 10 years-of-age. Picture in the public domain.

The two known conditions that they can suffer from as part of the dwarfism is lordosis and pectus excavatum. The veterinarian and lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Carole Margolis, said that they have spinal malformations, lordosis and scoliosis and they can be born with ribbed abnormalities. Quite a bundle of health issues.

Interestingly, the respected book Robinson's Genetics for Cat Breeders and Veterinarians, fourth edition, describes the effects of dwarfism as a cosmetic issue. In other words, it is not serious and they just look cute. In effect they are stating that dwarfism makes the cats look attractive to the general public without health consequences but this is an incorrect assessment in my view.

I'm not going to decry dwarf cats of which there are 13 different breeds by the way because they are popular in the eyes of many people. However, adopters should realise that they do not inherently enjoy genuinely good healthy. I don't think these conditions that I have described are a great problem to the cats but they might be sometimes. It's just that you can't describe dwarf cats as healthy as a consequence.

CLICK FOR MANY PAGES ON DWARF CATS

The most famous dwarf cat ever to exist was Grumpy Cat. She died at the age of seven by the way and her facial expression arguably was because of her dwarfism. That's another area where Robinson's appears to have got it wrong because they say that dwarfism does not affect the anatomy of the face. But it appears to have created the downward facing mouth of Grumpy Cat. Wrong? Please tell me.

It is said, by the way, that Grumpy Cat died of a urinary tract infection. So, for the record her dwarfism was not involved but I doubt the record to be perfectly honest. We would not get the full reason for her early death from her owner as she was a controversial cat. 

In respect of kids with dwarfism, the experts say that "each condition that causes dwarfism has its own possible medical complications". In other words, certain conditions other than a genetic mutation causes dwarfism and these conditions could have associated health problems.

Brachycephalic Persian cat with bulging eyes can have corneal problems

In this article I want to point out the bulging eyes of the Exotic Shorthair and the Persian, two associated breeds because the former is a shorthaired version of the latter. In this picture we can see the "punch-face" appearance of the Persian. It almost looks as if this cat has suffered a catastrophic injury to the face as it's been flattened. And this, to my mind, leaves the eyeballs bulging outwards beyond the protection of the bones of the face. This leaves the cornea exposed because there is a reduced ability to close the eyelids.

 Brachycephalic Persian cat with bulging eyes and flat face. Photo: Irina Gerasimova.

And of course, the cornea is exposed anyway as it sticks out so far. This contributes to 'exposure keratitis' and it is said probably contributes to corneal sequestrum development (the development of an opaque, dark brown to black plaque on the cornea). Persian cats are predisposed to this.

Exposure keratitis also occurs in people and it is described as a medical condition affecting the cornea of eyes which can lead to corneal ulceration and permanent loss of vision due to corneal opacity. Normally the cornea is kept moist by blinking and during sleep it is covered by the eyelids. When the cornea is exposed to the air, it can cause increased evaporation of tear from the corneal surface leading to dryness of the corneal surface. This can lead to corneal epithelial damage based on my research on Wikipedia.

I'm not saying that this particular, individual in the photograph is going to have problems with their cornea. I wouldn't say that. I'm just commenting generally about this desire to create flat-faced brachycephalic Persian and Exotic Shorthair cats with these bulging eyes. 

I think the bulging eye problem is particularly noticeable with the Exotic Shorthair cats. I've seen a lot of this and I think it is an unfortunate side effect of this extreme selective breeding. I don't think the breeders want this but it goes with the territory of the flat-face as does other health problems which you read about by clicking on this link.

I think you will find that the majority of the public would like to see the breed standards of the Persian and Exotic Shorthair 'detuned' by which I mean made less extreme so that the breeders follow guidance which doesn't drive them to creating unhealthy cats which arguably look less attractive than the traditional Persian. I think you will find that the vast majority of the public prefer the appearance of the traditional Persian over the contemporary variant. So, there's no need to breed cats like this in the first place.

Perhaps the problem is that the cat fancy is too inward-looking. Perhaps they should conduct a poll with the public and ask them what they think. They may have been encouraged to breed cats like this because the Persian has been very popular for many years but they have gradually drifted into this extreme look without, I believe, touching base with the public on the issue as to whether this was a wise thing to do. It has taken the cat fancy around 60 years to create this strange appearance.

Cat owners should call a veterinarian under these circumstances

Richard H. Gebhardt, former president of the Cat Fanciers' Association, tells us that cat breeders and cat owners should call their veterinarian under the following circumstances. He refers to illness symptoms and whether you should call a veterinarian immediately or the next day i.e. he is grading the importance of dealing with the matter.

My cat inspecting the fence of his enclosure. He eventually escaped!
Picture: Michael. Only 1 in 1000 escape thse enclosures I was told.

I will list them as he writes them if I may as I don't think that there will be any copyright issues in doing this. It ensures the information is accurate. His book was published in 1991, almost 30 years ago.

• Any deep wound or wound still bleeding after pressure has been applied: see a vet at once.
• Seems drowsy after ingesting a foreign substance: see a vet at once
• Stopped breathing after chewing on a poisonous plant: see a vet at once
• Temperature elevated beyond 105: at once
• Temperature between 103 and 105, and other signs of illness present: next day
• Decreased appetite coupled with coughing, vomiting, diarrhoea: next day
• Sudden weakness in hindquarters: at once
• General lameness in any leg lasting more than three days: next day
• Red, ulcerated sore on the lips or other part of the body: at once
• Abscess that is warm and painful to the touch: at once
• Any general swelling that is warm and painful to the touch: next day
• Runny nose accompanied by elevated temperature, pale gums, weakness: at once
• Runny nose accompanied by lethargy, puss in the eye, or rapid breathing: next day
• Coughing accompanied by elevated temperature, difficult breathing, depressed energy level: next day
• Foul breath accompanied by increased water intake, increased urination, excessive appetite, lethargy: next day (this is kidney disease by the way)
• Evidence of trauma accompanied by shortness of breath, elevated temperature, pale gums, lethargy, at once
• Vomiting accompanied by lethargy, frequent attempts to urinate, elevated temperature, blood in stools: at once
• Diarrhoea accompanied by bloody faeces, elevated temperature, vomiting: at once
• Diarrhoea accompanied by dehydration: next day
• Constipation accompanied by straining and failure to defecate: at once
• Abnormally thin stools accompanied by elevated temperature: next day

I hope that this helps somebody at some time. The list presents the symptoms only but that keeps it nice and straightforward and simple.

Abnormal Cat Breeds

What are abnormal cat breeds? As the description implies, they are cat breeds which have been developed because anatomically speaking they can be distinguished from regular-looking cats because they have at least one abnormality. These abnormalities have normally been created because of a spontaneous genetic mutation in a random bred cat. It doesn't matter where the cat lived. It just happens because that is the way nature works. Somebody sees the cat and finds him or her interesting and the news gets back to a cat breeder who wants to develop their own cat breed because they are ambitious.

They pick up the cat and start the long journey into developing a new cat breed. The cat fancy is littered with abnormal cat breeds but they are controversial. Sometimes the abnormality not only concerns the appearance such as the flat ears of the Scottish Fold but also affects the cartilage in other parts of the cat's body. There are health implications. This is the controversial aspect of abnormal cat breeds. An unusual appearance is important for a cat breeder but so is health. And you will find that when a spontaneous genetic mutation causes an abnormality in appearance it can also have undesirable health implications.

I've mentioned the Scottish Fold. Another abnormal cat breed would be the Munchkin. This is the founding dwarf cat. Dwarfism creates small legs under normal-sized bodies. This creates a very cute looking cat and they are popular. But there are two potential health problems linked to this cat breed. And there are about a dozen spin-off breeds from the Munchkin. These are dwarf cat breeds created out of hybridisations; crossing the Munchkin with another cat breed such as the Sphynx. I have a complete list of those breeds on an associated website. I also discussed the two health problems which may affect the dwarf cat which you can read by clicking on this link.

Super-cute Scottish Fold kitten but be careful about health. Picture: Reddit.com

The hairless cats are abnormal cat breeds. There are several variants from the Russian Don Sphynx to the Peterbald and of course there is the well-known American Sphynx cat which is based upon a random bred hairless cat found in Canada. The tailless cats are also abnormal. The Manx is a classic example. Once again there are potentially severe health implications caused by the gene which makes these cats tailless. Breeders have to be very careful because if you breed two Manx cats you can end up with an unviable embryo. You have to crossbreed the cat which dilutes the desired appearance and breeders end up creating cats which are not tailless or in the case of Scottish Fold cats they end up breeding cats with normal ears. What happens to those cats? There is a limited market for them. This is another complication facing breeders of these abnormal cats.

What you find is that some cat associations accept these abnormal cat breeds while others don't. A more tolerant or open-minded cat associations which accepts them is The International cat Association (TICA). A cat Association which rejects them is the Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA). They are more traditional in their viewpoint about what should be acceptable in a cat breed. Is the CFA more sensible? This is the controversial aspect of these breeds.

In the UK, the GCCF, the Premier cat Association in the UK, is I would argue somewhat ambivalent about accepting these breeds. They generally reject them which I think is correct because the primary objective for cat breeders should be health and then character and then appearance. But they tend to prioritise their cats in the reverse order. This is because buyers are fascinated with appearance and tend to conveniently brush under the carpet issues of health.

Looking at the hairless cats once again, briefly, you have to keep these cats indoors because without fur they can suffer in cold weather or will be sunburnt in hot weather. Admirers of the hairless cat argue that there is no issue because they will always be particularly careful in caring for their cat and keep them indoors. They do need particular care because the sebaceous glands in their skin delivering the oils for their fur deposit these oils on the skin which attracts dirt. The oil has nowhere to go and therefore it has to be washed off regularly by the cat's owner.

Another arguably abnormal cat breeder is the Ragdoll. It was put out initially that this cat lacks sensitivity to pain and would go limp when held. This may have encouraged children to hurt the cats because they considered them to be toys rather than sentient beings. Their highly placid nature also makes them more vulnerable when outdoors. It is argued that they should be kept indoors and they are well suited to an indoor life. I would not describe the Ragdoll Cat as an abnormal cat breed. They are a regular cat in truth and beautiful as well. Not all Ragdoll cats are floppy and super laid-back. They have their own individual personalities too.

Referring once again to the Scottish Fold. This breed has seen a surge in popularity recently, partly because the well-known celebrity singer, Taylor Swift, adopted two. She is very visible holding her Scottish Fold under her arm. Domestic cats normally have very mobile ear flaps so what happens for the Scottish Fold? They can't move their ears and you know that domestic cats have over 30 muscles moving their flaps. And a domestic cat's ears provide signals to an opposing cat. These signals can no longer be made. There is third issue namely that ear mites may be a particular problem for this breed although I have no evidence that this is the case.

Sometimes abnormal cat breeds are created from a normal breed. The classic example is the flat-faced Persian (peke-faced). This beautiful domestic cat should have a standard or regular-looking face but over many years of selective breeding the cat associations (primarily the CFA) decided to refine, as they saw it, the face and made it flatter and flatter to the point where they developed health issues. Breathing problems became an issue and the tears from the eyes could not drain away because the tear duct became distorted. This creates tears rolling down the side of the face which have to be wiped away by the owner. And the fur is exceptionally long to the point where the cat can no longer self-groom effectively. This also places an added burden upon the human caregiver.

There is no doubt that these abnormal cat breeds although interesting in appearance create added issues and responsibilities for the human caregiver. They were created out of a desire to produce a distinguished cat breed amongst a crowded spectrum of breeds. During the mid-part of the 1900s there was a surge in new breeds, some of them wild cat hybrids. Since those times the range of breeds has been far more settled. There is probably no more room to create a strange new breed with a distinguishing appearance. Those days are over. And it is time, in a world which is more sensitive towards animal welfare, for the cat associations to re-emphasise the importance of health and to modify their breed standards accordingly to gently encourage breeders away from extreme breeding.

Assessing Cat Breed Popularity

The popularity of cat breeds is a slightly contentious subject. The difficulty arises because there are various ways of deciding which breeds are the most popular.

The Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA), a very well established and large cat association, say the Persian cat is the most popular. This has been the case for a very long time at the CFA. They base their assessment on the number of registrations. By that I presume they mean the number of individual cats that are registered with their associations. That means that there are more Persian cats registered at the CFA than any other breed. Incidentally, I cannot find that information on their website but it is common knowledge.

The International Cat Association (TICA), the other large American cat registry, says that the Savannah cat is the fourth most popular. I was told that by a visitor to this website. They, too, probably base their assessment on registrations because they have no other way of assessing unless they do what I do and ask the public, the people who buy cats, what they think through an online poll.

In the UK, the GCCF say that the British Shorthair is the most registered cat breed with their registry. The Bengal cat is losing ground.



The results of the poll are published above in a bar chart that shows the top ten most popular. The Maine Coon heads the list and the list shows us that the public prefer the very long established breeds. This is to be expected because they are the cat breeds that people have heard about.

There are over 100 cat breeds but many are on not mainstream. The general public probably would only know of about ten or less if asked.

My poll has had 4328 votes as at mid-July of 2011 - a good number and I would hope that it is representative of the opinion of the general population. It is also a world poll. In other words anyone, anywhere can vote. It represents the public's world viewpoint.

The CFA assessment represents USA breeder's. It is a reflection of what USA breeders are doing. Obviously if they are breeding more Persians there should be more customers (supply and demand). So the number of registrations should reflect the public's viewpoint as well.

But it is an indirect connection rather than a direct vote. We don't know that all the cat's registered at a cat association are sold to customers. In fact it is certain that they are not. There three other points worth making:

1. The size of the cat association is relevant. Smaller cat associations will have non-representational data. In fact all the associations have some regional affiliations and;
2. The CFA, for example, does not register the Bengal or Savannah cats (in fact, all wildcat hybrids). That distorts figures.
3. The CFA has in my opinion always favored certain breeds including the flat-faced Persian. This also distorts numbers.
   

My argument is that my poll is more reliable! I would say that but I genuinely believe it is because of its simplicity and directness. And, incidentally, I make sure that every vote is genuine (i.e. no multiple votes are allowed).

Lastly, the Savannah cat could and perhaps should be the most popular cat breed. On my poll the Savannah cat is ranked 12th most popular. This is a fantastic achievement for such an exotic cat. I suspect that the "man on top of the Clapham omnibus" (average person) would not consider adopting a Savannah until now. Their popularity is climbing.

You can see the full list of votes for 66 cat breeds by clicking on this link.

Bengal Registrations at GCCF down by 47%

The GCCF is the number one cat association in the UK. They report on their website that registrations of the Bengal cat are down by 47% for the period 2009 to 2010. The figures are as follows:

• 2009 - 1996 registrations
• 2010 - 1355 registrations

Breeders register their cats at the GCCF to ensure that they are formally accepted as purebred cats. You can see the GCCF registration policy on this page (new window). The figures are of a sufficient size to make the shift reliable but it is only one year. A trend over several years would be more conclusive - but see figures below. This may be a trend.

No one single cat breed went up to replace this downward trend for the Bengal.

Here are the overall figures:



The Bengal cat is second most popular on my long standing public (worldwide) poll.

Is Cat Registration Worth It?

How valid is cat registration? Is cat registration worth it? Purebred cats need to be registered with a cat association to provide the cat's owner with evidence that the cat is a purebred cat. Really, the situation is quite complicated. This is because there is a subtle difference between a purebred cat and a pedigree cat and would expect very few people outside the cat fancy to know or be bothered to know the difference. The point though is this. Unless the rules that govern whether a cat is purebred and indeed pedigree are enforced precisely and the whole thing is managed professionally, the entire purebred cat scene/business will come tumbling down, much like the banks. We thought the banks were a kind of institution, almost a public service. We thought that the people who managed the banks were "professionals". They were but being professional does not mean being good, moral and proper etc.

As I say on the Moggie cat page of the website, if we are to say that we live with a pedigree cat we will need to prove at least 3 generations of the cat have been registered with the cat association in question. The CFA wording is this: A Certified Pedigree will be issued only when three or more generations of ancestry are registered or recorded with CFA. A Certified Pedigree will be issued on an individually registered cat only, not on a litter. {I have taken liberty to quote verbatim for the sake of accuracy}.

Rather confusingly, a purebred cat need not be registered unless we want to prove the cat is purebred in which case we need to prove that the cat in question has parents and grandparents to three generations of the same breed. And of course the breed in question has to be a recognized cat breed. That would normally be achieved by a pedigree registration, it seems.

OK, these rules seem pretty good and thorough. But we don't need to register with the established cat associations. There are, though, what appears to be lesser or what one breeder has called "private registration groups". These organisation exist, it seems to me to get a cat registered for sale and to avoid the more sensible and stricter established cat association registration process. In America the established cat registries are the CFA, TICA and ACFA. The CFA (the largest) charges $20 for certified pedigree, 3 generation registration.

One "fringe" registry is the NORTH AMERICAN PUREBRED CAT REGISTRY. Their requirements for registration are:

• All purebred cats can be registered.
• They will register any cat that is already registered with another registry using the registration papers that are already supplied (what is the point?).
• Even if the purebred is not registered with another registry the cat can be registered provided either (a) if the person is 100% certain of the cat's breed a form needs to be filled out as best as the applicant can ("fill out the information you know and put unknown on the places you do not know") and (b) if the person is not sure about the cat's breed he or she should, "send a side view picture with the application". Is that it?!
• They charge $10 (attractively half price).
  

Clearly, the standard is dramatically lower. It is non-existent, in fact. This would seem to be a license for unscrupulous breeders to sell to innocent individuals a cat that is claimed to be purebred when it is not. This weakens the whole process of purebred cat registration and undermines the cat fancy generally, surely. No one seems to mind except perhaps the innocent buyer.

One experienced breeder says that a breeder (and a buyer, I would say) should insist on TICA or CFA registration and for shipping out of the country and if shipping or selling a Bengal or Savannah, TICA regisration is probably essential. Note, he used the word, probable. He was not sure about ACFA registration. Too vague for me.

Is cat registration worth it? Yes, but only if it is with a major and established cat registry with rules that apply a proper standard.



Is Cat Registration Worth It? to Collective Responsibility of Cat Breeding

Cat Breeding Coordination

Why do I sense that there is a need for some cat breeding coordination? It seems to me that there is a need for proper leadership in the cat fancy. It is too weak and laissez faire. There are many symptoms of this but the classic ones are concerned with, for example, the problems encountered by breeders of Bengal cats with the genetic disease HCM.

There is a desperate need for all breeders to be obliged to have their lines tested for HCM in order to gradually eradicate the disease from the breed as a whole. But individual Bengal cat breeders are doing the ethical thing and testing and some are not. To not test shows a callous disregard for the cat. And if a breeder does not care for the cat's welfare at a fundamental level then that breeder should not be breeding. Further it is against the Bengal breed as a whole.

I argue that there is a need for a coordinating hand, someone to guide, direct and enforce, yes enforce testing and organising a database. It can't be that difficult surely? Breeders will naturally pull in different directions and some will behave more ethically than others. That is the nature of humankind, of course. But in order to make the control and management of HCM in Bengal cats work and be effective we cannot leave it to Bengal cat breeders to work together. It simply won't happen.

If the associations step back and do nothing they are complicit in breeding unhealthy cats who will suffer. To do nothing knowing that there is a problem implicates them and makes them just as culpable. Come on, cat breeding coordination is needed urgently.



Cat Breeding Coordination to Cat Facts

The Future of Cat Breeding?

Can we see a part of the future of cat breeding by observing what has happened to the Kennel Club in Great Britain? The Kennel Club has had to change the breed standards of 209 of its registered dog breeds as a result of a BBC program (Pedigree Dogs Exposed) that claimed that the club encouraged the breeding of unhealthy dogs through misdirected breed standards and judging at shows (including the biggest show of all, Crufts) that focused on appearance over health and temperament.

The program led to loss of sponsorship forcing the club to give way and change what was an ingrained practice established over decades. This has come as a major shock to the club and more particularly the various dog clubs and breed committees affiliated to or working on behalf of the Kennel Club. The committee members are often traditionalists. They have been doing what they do for generations. They became blind, I would argue, to what they were actually doing, focusing on the wrong thing, appearance, for the sake of status and profit at the expense of the animal they so loved and cared for.

However, grass roots members of the Kennel Club seem to disagree with the club. One committee member was kicked out of the King Charles Spaniel committee for assisting the BBC. The grass roots wanted her back and voted her in. The senior members of the committee all resigned forcing this member to back down. I am not sure why she did back down though. Anyway the point is, it is very hard to change well entrenched ways and one wonders sometimes whether the senior dog breeders are actually concerned about their animals' health as they no doubt claim to be. But they will be obliged to follow the new breed standard. Change will occur.

The same kind of thing, I believe, may well happen with the major cat associations. The CFA (Cat Fanciers Association) in the USA is the bastion of tradition but a tradition based on breed standards that have gradually veered off course under their management, resulting, albeit on a lesser scale, in some cat breeds being bred with health problems. Will there be a similar television program about cats? What is the future of cat breeding? The world is changing and the breeders aren't.

The CFA would do well to snap out of its cosy world and face the modern world. It will then ensure a long future but without change there will be mounting pressure from animal rights and grass roots to change, which may jeopardize its position and standing in the long term. Other cat assocations follow the ways of the CFA. These may face similar problems. The associations need to care more for the future of cat breeding.

See Cat Breeders and Animal Rights | Cat Breed Standards Need Reviewing | Persian Cats | Complete Book of Cat Breeding, The

Cat Fanciers Association against Cruelty?

Is the Cat Fanciers Association against cruelty to cats? Well I guess this answer must be a resounding , "Yes".

In fact all cat fanciers who are usually cat breeders and people associated with cat breeding and cat showing will be against cat cruelty. But when one thinks about it, this is not necessarily automatically the case, it seems to me.

I'd like to mention the Cat Fanciers Association (CFA) in this post and address a little known fact. You may have heard of Alexa. It is a part of Amazon and it is an internet business that provides information about websites, including traffic levels. Obviously people who put websites on the internet want people to see it. The CFA are no exception. Therefore traffic levels are vital and webmasters do all they can to improve and maintain them.

The Alexa service also provides information about which country the traffic comes from. The CFA as expected receives most of its traffic from the USA, where it is based. The CFA mainly serves the United States. However, a substantial part of its traffic comes from China (about 20+ % ususally). This is highly unusual. I know of no other cat website whose traffic comes substantially from China.

Pictures of Cats.org (this website) gets no traffic from China as it is almost certainly blocked by the Chinese authorities as there are some pages on this site in which I justifiably criticize a small section of the people of China for acts of cat cruelty and the Chinese government for not enacting animal protection laws (see cat meat name and shame).

Then there is the thriving cat and dog fur market. This has been banned from Europe but it will continue to thrive in my opinion. In China, the world's primary supplier of cat and dog fur, the cats and dogs are kept, killed and skinned in the most cruel fashion.

The CFA website is clearly not banned by the Chinese authorities who monitor the internet. Why not? There cannot be any criticism on their website of the cat fur trade or cat meat trade or lack of animal protection legislation. Wouldn't you think that they would have something on that? They are the experts. It is simply not possible to reconcile breeding beautiful purebred cats and cat cruelty elsewhere in the world . You can't do the former without tackling the latter it seems to me.

So, I return to the question, "Is the Cat Fanciers Association against cruelty to cats?". Answer: I am not sure.

Cat Fanciers Assocation against cruelty? to too many cat associations

Cat Lovers of India

It is time that the cat lovers of India got together and formed a group. They would be the first cat fancy group in India, as I see it. I think it is time to do this, as according to Alexa, a web information company owned by Amazon, about 9% of the people who visit my website, www.pictures-of-cats.org live in India.

Fantastic, and yet it seems that proportionally very few people live with domestic cats. Why then start a cat fancy association. It might be called "Cat Association of India" (CAI) by the way. The reasons are these.

I bumped into a the Blue Cross of India website. A distinguished Indian women, Dr. Nanditha Krishna, has written an article that is posted on the site, called, "Are We Civilized?" It is an article on animal welfare in India or the lack of it. Well, not the lack of it exactly, but the need to improve it substantially. Through this article I discover that Dr. Nanditha Krishna is Honorary Director of the C P Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation and the C P R Environmental Education Centre. I visited the C P Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation website and discover that they are concerned with the promotion of the community and India culture; both wide and excellent objectives. These goals are to be achieved through education.

It is the element of education that I would like to be brought to bear on the matter of animal welfare. I couldn't see anything on the Foundations website that was concerned with the promotion of animal (and therefore cat, my area of interest) welfare. Cat and animal welfare can be improved in India through education. And what better medium to disseminate information about an animal, a companion animal, the cat, than through a cat association formed by the cat lovers of India?

The cat associations in the West are really only concerned with promoting the purebred cats or non-purebred show cats. They do this by holding information on cat pedigrees, providing judges at cat shows and endorsing and supporting cat shows. There is little work on the ground to do with the feral cat problem. The concept of show cats at shows and feral cats being euthanized at shelters don't sit comfortably together. Indians can improve on the concept of the cat association and create a first.

So why cannot the cat lovers of India create a cat association in India that not only promotes the cat but also tackles cat cruelty and animal cruelty through education? The purebred cat spearheading the welfare of the lowly feral cat is a very democratic concept and it would provide masses of credibility to the formation of a cat association, one that would not only provide pleasure to the better off and their purebred cats but also help their poorer cousins - covering the full spectrum. This could only have a beneficial spin off for all animals domestic and wild in India.

If the people of India are better informed I believe that they can and will become animal lovers or at least they will better respect animals and thereby drastically reduce incidences of cruelty to them. The cat lovers of India can help and promote this cause.

I cannot complete this post without mentioning Captain Sundaram, the Founder of the Blue Cross of India. He was a wonderful man ably supported by his wife who must also be highly commended as well.

Some Links:

• Cat Lovers of India to Cat and Animal Welfare in India
• Blue Cross of India - Founder

Try this for a successful website:

Helmi Flicks Cat Show Calendar

Here is Helmi Flick Cat Show Calendar for 2009 and 2010 (2009 now archive material), for those of us who are fans of her cat photography. Ken and Helmi's professionalism is very high. If things change, I'll update the page.

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Cat Show Calendar 2009 and 2010:

Jan 16-18, 2009 Cherry Hill NJ – TICA Jersey State

[Jan 20, 2009 On Location Shoot, New Jersey]

Feb 14-15, 2009 Waco TX – TICA Heart of Texas Cat Show

Mar 28-29, 2009 Vinton LA – TICA Maine Coonfederacy

Apr 04-05, 2009 Atlanta GA – TICA Hotlanta Cool Cats Cat Show

Apr 25-26, 2009 Oklahoma City OK – TICA Thunderkatz

May 23-24, 2009 Wichita KS – TICA KansasKatz Cat Show

Jun 06-07, 2009 Fitchburg MA – TICA Mysticats Cat Show

[Jun 09, 2009 Private Salon On-Location Shoot – Gardner MA]

Jul 25-26, 2009 Pigeon Forge TN – TICA Southeast REGION
[Aug 01-02, 2009 Ken wrangles for Preston: Wichita Falls TX]

Sep 05-06, 2009 Orlando FL – TICA ANNUAL

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Jan 29-31, 2010 Edison NJ – TICA Jersey State Feline Fanciers

Feb 13-14, 2010 Waco TX – TICA Heart of Texas Cat Show

Mar 06-07, 2010 Providence RI – TICA Cats on the Beach Show

Mar 13-14, 2010 Denver CO – TICA Colorado Cats Cat Show

Mar 26-28, 2010 Houston TX – TICA Cat Rebel’s Confederacy

Apr 17-18, 2010 Mesquite TX – CFA North Texas Cat Show

Apr 24-25, 2010 Oklahoma City OK – TICA Thunderkatz

Jul 09-11, 2010 Houston TX – TICA Cat Rebel’s Confederacy

Sep 18-19, 2010 Wichita KS – TICA KansasKatz Cat Show

Oct 23-24, 2010* Atlanta GA – TICA *

Jul 23-24, 2011 Wichita Falls TX – TICA SC Regional

*Penciled in

Helmi Flick also likes to work at an international level and welcomes invitations. Ken and Helmi can be contacted at helmi [at] helmiflick.com. When you're probably the best cat photographer, the world is your work place. Ken wrote an article about their international cat photography experiences in Japan.

You can see Helmi and Ken working at the recent TICA Waxahachie Cat Show (Nov 22-23rd 2008).

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Previous years 2007 and 2008:

Cat Show Calendar 2007:

Jan 19-21, 2007 Cherry Hill NJ – TICA Jersey State

Feb 10-11, 2007 Waco TX – TICA Heart of Texas Cat Show

Mar 10-11, 2007 Phoenix AZ – CFA Superstition Cat Fanciers

Apr 07-08, 2007 New Braunfels TX – TICA Mission City

Apr 28-29, 2007 Oklahoma City OK – TICA Thunderkatz

May 12-13, 2007 Mesquite TX – CFA Nat’l Maine Coon Cat Show

Jul 07-08, 2007 Wichita Falls TX – TICA Maine Coon Connection

Jul 14-15, 2007 Raleigh NC – TICA Southeast REGIONAL

Aug 03-05, 2007 Grand Rapids MI – TICA Great Lakes REGIONAL

Aug 18-19, 2007 Waco TX – TICA South Central REGIONAL

Sep 08-09, 2007 Humble TX – CFA Stars & Stripes Cat Show

Oct 13-14, 2007 Tulsa OK – TICA T-Townkatz Cat Show

Dec 07-09, 2007 Corpus Christi TX – TICA T.I.F.S. Cat Show

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Cat Show Calendar 2008:

Jan 18-20, 2008 Cherry Hill NJ – TICA Jersey State

Feb 09-10, 2008 Waco TX – TICA Heart of Texas Cat Show

Mar 29-30, 2008 Houston TX – CFA World Cat Congress

Apr 05-06, 2008 New Braunfels TX – Mission City

Apr 26-27, 2008 Oklahoma City OK – TICA Thunderkatz

Jul 12-13, 2008 Waco TX – TICA Lone Star & NEKO Jr Achievers

[Jul 19-20, 2008 Wichita Falls TX – Ken Wrangles for Preston]

Jul 26-27, 2008 Orlando FL – TICA Southeast REGIONAL

Aug 16-17, 2008 Austin TX – TICA South Central REGIONAL

Aug 30-31, 2008 Arlington TX – TICA ANNUAL

Oct 03-05, 2008 Longview TX – TICA On Safari 2008

Nov 22-23, 2008 Waxahatchie TX – TICA Turkish Van Cat Show

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From Helmi Flick's Cat Show Calendar Helmi Flick Cat Photography

Pedigree cat breeding

Can pedigree cat breeding in the UK learn something from pedigree dog breeding? A recent story in the Times newspaper is about a BBC documentary on the management of dog breeding in the UK by The Kennel Club, the oldest (all-breed) dog club in the world. The Kennel Club run the Crufts Dog Show and the BBC are considering walking away from covering the event as a result of the conclusions drawn from the film documentary.

I haven't seen the film yet (I'll update this post when I have seen it) but it seems to conclude that the Kennel Club is presiding over (or perhaps actively encouraging) poor breeding practices that focus on the appearance rather than the character of pedigree dogs.

When a breeder over focuses on appearance to the detriment of other factors such as health, health may and often does suffer due to inbreeding depression (genetically based ill health and deformities).

"Type", the breeders word for an appearance matching the breed standard is the first goal of cat breeders. It is very tempting to over breed to type when the show hall judges reward the cats and dogs that match type or their interpretation of it. There is often a gradual drift towards more extreme type as it is more outstanding. This is the slippery path to over doing breeding and breeding too closely.

The percentage of pedigree dogs in the UK is much higher than for cats. Apparently 75% of the 7.3 million dogs in the UK are pedigree dogs. Of the 7.2 million cats, only 18% are pedigree. (src: www.pfma.org.uk)

Purebred breeding of the dog is therefore far more advanced than for the cat. The norm is a purebred dog. The norm is to keep a mixed breed unregistered non-purebred cat in the UK. So there must by definition be less inbreeding going on in the cat world as mixed breed cats are the opposite to purebred cats in that respect.

The film documentary found that an unacceptable percentage of dogs (the Kennel Club admits to 10% of the total number of pedigree dogs) suffer from genetically based diseases. That equates to over three quarters of million dogs created by dog breeders with significant diseases that impaired their lives. Of the remaining 10% some will also suffer from diseases brought about by inbreeding but to an extent that is not detrimental to their quality of life (src: Kennel Club).

That is a lot of pain to be suffered in the quest for a beautiful looking dog. Beautiful dogs are pleasing humans. Beautiful looking or outstanding looking dogs are bred to please humans. The dog doesn't care if he/she is beautiful or not. The same of course applies to cats. So the social equation is this:

730,000 x 1 unit of pain in the dog = 6,570,000 units of pleasure in humans

Is that a balanced equation? Cat breeding has its problems too but it should and probably does take heed of dog breeding experiences and focus as much if not more on character and health and give appearance second place. The GCCF, the major association in Britain has the responsibility to achieve this. Cat associations should take the lead. The Kennel Club surely has not.

Pedigree cat breeding to home page

Cat Breeders

Cat Breeders - lots of cats in a group - the semi-hairless cat top left is a Peterbald cat. The other cats are Oriental Shorthair cats I believe. Photo copyright .m for matthijs. This photo is included because I like it. It has no connection to the posting except that there are lots of little Oriental Shorthair cats all together indicating some breeding has taken place.

Are Cat Breeders in the USA going through a hidden crisis? Is there dissent amongst the ranks of cat breeders? I think there is to a certain degree for at least two reasons. Firstly there are campaigns by organisations such as PETA, HSUS and the various Animal Rights groups against cat breeding. I don't think that these campaigns are against cat breeding totally (i.e. to ban it completely) although I might be wrong. Secondly, some authorities (and I am talking about the USA here) are putting the squeeze on cat breeding by imposing licensing fees etc. In other words a gradual chipping away of the viability of cat breeding may be taking place.

This is placing a strain on the cat breeding community it seems - I could be wrong but I sense this is the case or beginning to be the case. This gradual change in opinion in the US is probably being brought about by the increase in the feral cat population set against the increase in desire to own and create designer type cats. This is a toxic combination. It smacks of consumerism at the expense of animal welfare. There is also the simple fact of economics in dealing with feral cats.

Some cat breeders it seems are keen to take action to fight back. This requires co-ordination and I wonder whether they can achieve this. Cat breeders are individuals who tend to pull in different directions. That is in part why there are too many cat associations making the cat fancy too complicated. That is why there are too many names of cat breeds that differ between the UK, the rest of Europe and USA causing confusion.

Maybe this is a moment in the history of the cat fancy when the people in authority need to pull together and tackle the uncomfortable issues to allow them to move on.

Cat Breeders to Home page

Too Many Cat Associations

Are there too many cat associations? I am talking about the USA primarily and not the various associations specific to different countries. The USA is by far the biggest domestic cat "market", with some 90m domestic cats (not including, as I understand it, feral domestic cats). By contrast another big market is the UK with 7m cats, a fraction of the US numbers. When one talks of the cat fancy you really have to think of the US mainly and they are the main driving force.

The multitude of cat associations in the US is due to natural evolution much like the domestic cat itself. The cat fancy started at the end of the 19th century. In the UK the first was The National Cat Club formed in 1887. They were the governing body of the cat fancy in the UK until the formation of the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF) in 1910.

In the USA the first was the American Cat Club, formed in 1895, after the cat show in Madison Square Garden, New York of the same year. Thereafter the US cat fancy pulled in different directions, with splinter groups forming and different factions pursuing different goals. All very human and very normal but not that great for the cats in my view.

The current position is that there are a number of different and competing cat associations, with slightly different views on the development of the cat fancy generally and on the development of particular cat breeds specifically.

This only serves to create confusion, compounded by breed standards written, it seems, by different people within each cat association and in slightly different styles. This causes a lack of clarity of vision and purpose.

What I am trying to say is this: the reasons why there is more than one general association (i.e. not breed specific) are the wrong reasons. This has created a weakness in the management of cat breeding.

These are the associations based in the US. TICA is international and of course includes the US. The CFA is, I think, also international but if it is it focuses on the USA.

• American Cat Association (ACA)
• American Cat Fanciers Association (ACFA)
• Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA)
• Cat Fanciers' Federation (CFF)
• The International Cat Association (TICA)
• American Association of Cat Enthusiasts (AACE)
• United Feline Association (UFO)
• Traditional Cat Association Inc ®(TCA)
  

In Canada there is:

• Canadian Cat Association (CCA)

Europe

• Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF)
• Federation Internationale Feline (FIFe)
• World Cat Federation (WCF)
  

Photograph of Persian cat in his pen on a bed copyright by whizchickenonabun

From Too Many Cat Associations to Home Page

Pedigree Cats with HCM

Pedigree cats with HCM should not be pedigree cats. A pedigree cat is one that can demonstrate a parentage of purebred cat that satisfies the cat association concerned. I other words she has a well documented history from father/mother and grandfather/mother etc. I don't live with a pedigree cat and my research proved fruitless but it seems to me that when you register your cat with an association you don't have to declare whether your cat has HCM, an inherited heart disease. Also, it seems that there is no requirement to test for HCM at regular intervals, which is important as it doesn't show up early on in the cats' life. Would it not be a good idea to make testing negative for HCM (meaning free of HCM) a prerequisite for registration and continuing registration of all cat registries/associations. This would force breeders to better control the spread of HCM, but privately. I say privately because a website that recorded the results of HCM testing for Bengal cats has been threatened with legal action unless an incorrect entry was removed. This website's register is open, a good thing in one sense obviously, but many breeders are too frightened to openly declare negative tests for fear of ruining their business. A private method would result in more testing it seems and a gradual eradication of this killer disease from the breeding lines. The end result would be less Pedigree Cats with HCM. Am I talking nonsense? If so please tell me. I have written this on a commonsense basis and I am not that familiar with the registration process. I think the cat associations have made things horribly complicated in so many areas. From Pedigree Cats with HCM to Cat Facts