American Wirehair Cats

Family: Felidae

Common Name(s)

    American Wirehair.

Background    The first known American Wirehair, named Adam, was born in 1966 on a farm in New York. The kitten was born to two straight-haired American Shorthair parents, Bootsie and Fluffy, and was the only wirehaired kitten in the litter. He was red and white. The wiry hair is caused by a mutation on a dominant gene. Adam was bred with a female straight-haired kitten from the same litter named Tip-Toe. They successfully produced wire-haired kittens, and by 1969, a true-breeding American Wirehair had emerged. In 1977 the Cat Fanciers' Association recognized it as an official breed. It is still an uncommon cat in the United States, but is a rare cat nearly anywhere else in the world.

Description

     The American Wirehair's defining feature is of course its wiry, springy fur that resembles the coat of a lamb. The wiry appearance is created by the fact that each hair is either curly or hooked. Unlike the American Shorthair, the American Wirehair's coat is of medium length. The hair is coarser on the head, flanks, and base of the tail, but is soft on the underbelly and chin. The coat can have any color form that the American Shorthair has, except for patched tabby. Some examples of acceptable colors include White, Cream, Shaded Silver, Black Smoke, Classic Tabby Pattern, Calico, and Blue-Cream.
Apart from its unique coat, the American Wirehair is similar to the American Shorthair in most other aspects. It is a medium to large cat and weighs from 8 to 15 pounds. It has a muscular body. The head is medium-sized, broad, and round. The eyes are large, round, and wide-set. It is highly desirable for it to have curly whiskers. The males are larger than the females and have defined jowls. This breed's approximate lifespan is 15 years.

Care and Feeding    This breed has no special dietary needs.

Devon Rex Cats (Pixie Cat, Alien Cat)

Family: Felidae

Common Name(s)    Devon Rex, Pixie Cat, Alien Cat

Background    The Devon Rex line is believed to have descended from a stray tomcat that was seen around an old tin mine in Buckfastleigh in Devon. The cat appeared to have a curly coat which enticed various people to attempt to capture and breed him, but they were not successful. However, in 1960 the cat mated with another stray, a tortie-and-white, which reared a litter that included one curly-haired kitten. This kitten was named Kirlee by Miss Beryl Cox, a friend of the kittens mother. Kirlee is known as the father of the Devon Rex breed. At first, it was believed that these cats could be bred with the Cornish Rex breed, which was discovered ten years earlier. However, when they were bred together, only straight-haired kittens were produced, revealing that the two breeds were distinctive. It was also found that curly-haired kittens from the Devon Rex line could only be produced when both parents carried the recessive gene. The Devon Rex was recognized as a separate breed from the Cornish Rex in 1967, except in the United States, which waited until 1979 to distinguish the two breeds.

Description     Like the Cornish Rex, the Devon Rex is largely known for its unique wavy coat. The Devon Rex coat is comprised mostly of down hairs, but unlike the Cornish Rex, it has some guard hairs, though they are thinner than the average cat's guard hairs and vary in length. These features create a lumpier, slightly harsher coat than the Cornish Rex coat. Like the Cornish Rex, the Devon Rex also has curly eyebrows and whiskers. Interestingly, like young birds Devon Rex kittens molt their original coat, which is a very fine down coat, at around 8 weeks of age. The new coat can take from a few days to over a year to completely grow in.

    The Devon Rex is a small to medium-sized cat, weighing 6 to 9 pounds. It has a hard, muscular build and a slender body, though its chest is broad. The legs are slender, but strong. The hind legs are longer than the front legs and the front legs come out from the chest, giving it a bulldog pose. The tail is long and slender. The head is wedge-shaped with full cheeks, large, oval-shaped, large set eyes, a stop to the nose, creating a dip when seen from the profile, and extremely large, wide-set ears, giving it a "pixie" or "elfish" appearance. The lifespan for a Devon Rex is 9 to 15 years, though some have been known to reach 20 years of age.

Care and Feeding    Devon Rexes enjoy eating a lot, but they are not known for over-eating. No special diet is required.

Scottish Fold Cats (Pixie Cat, Alien Cat)

Family: Felidae

Common Name(s)    Scottish Fold
Description
     The defining feature of the Scottish Fold is, of course, the folded ears, caused by a spontaneous mutation from a dominant gene. They are folded forward and downward. Smaller, more tightly folded ears are desirable. Some have a single fold, while some have a double fold. The double fold causes the ear tips to almost touch the head. Kittens begin to exhibit the folded ear trait at about 25 days, when the cartilage in the ears begins to harden, and most kittens' ears stand up. These kittens' ears simply stay down.
    This is a medium-sized breed with a rounded, stocky body. The legs are medium in length and the tail is medium or long in length and tapering. The head is round and wide and sits on a short neck. The eyes are large, round, and wide open. The nose is short and softly curved. These features create an owl-like appearance. The Scottish Fold has a thick, double coat. All color combinations are accepted, except for chocolate, lavender, the Himalayan pattern, and any combinations of those colors with white. They generally weigh 6 to 13 pounds and live to be 10 to 15 years old.
Care and Feeding    They require no special diet.