CONCERNING VARIETIES OF CATS
Few people realize how many kinds of cats there are. The fashionable
world begins to discuss cats technically and understand their various
points of excellence. The "lord mayor's chain," the "Dutch rabbit
markings," and similar features are understood by more cat fanciers than
a few years ago; but, until within that time, it is doubtful if the
number of people who knew the difference between the Angora and the
Persian in this country amounted to a hundred. It is but a few years
since the craze for the Angora cat started. These cats have been
fashionable pets in England for some years back, and now America begins
to understand their value and the principles of breeding them. Today,
there are as handsome, well-bred animals in the United States as can be
found abroad. The demand for high-bred animals with a pedigree is
greatly increasing, and society people are beginning to understand the
fine points of the thoroughbred.
The Angora cat, as its name indicates, comes from Angora in Western
Asia, the province that is celebrated for its goats with long hair of
fine quality. In fact, the hair under the Angora cat's body often
resembles the finest of the Angora goatskins. Angora cats are favorites
with the Turks and Armenians, and exist in many colors, especially since
they have been more carefully bred. They vary in form, color, and
disposition, and also in the quality of their hair. The standard calls
for a small head, with not too long a nose, large eyes that should
harmonize in color with the fur, small, pointed ears with a tuft of hair
at the apex, and a very full, fluffy mane around the neck. This mane is
known as the "lord mayor's chain." The body is longer than that of the
ordinary cat in proportion to its size, and is extremely graceful, and
covered with long, silky hair, which is crinkly like that of the Angora
goat. This hair should be as fine as possible, and not woolly. The legs
are of a moderate length, but look short on account of the length of
hair on the body. Little tufts of hair growing between the toes indicate
high breeding. The Angora cat, in good condition, is one of the most
beautiful and elegant creatures in the world, and few can resist its
charm. The tail is long and like an ostrich plume. It is usually
carried, when the cat is in good spirits, straight up, with the end
waving over toward one side. The tail of the Angora serves as a
barometer of its bodily and mental condition. If the cat is ill or
frightened, the tail droops, and sometimes trails on the ground; but
when she is in good spirits, playing about the house or grounds, it
waves like a great plume, and is exceedingly handsome. The suppleness of
the Angora's tail is also a mark of fine breeding. A highbred Angora
will allow its tail to be doubled or twisted without apparent notice of
the performance.
The Angora does not reach its prime until about two years. Before that
time its head and body are not sufficiently developed to give the full
beauty and grace of the animal. As a rule, the Angora is of good
disposition, although the females are apt to be exceedingly nervous.
They are sociable and docile, although fond of roaming about, especially
if allowed to run loose. As a rule, they do not possess the keen
intelligence of the ordinary short-haired family cat, but their great
beauty and their cleanly and affectionate habits make them favorites
with fashionable people. The proper breeding of the Angora cat is a
regular science. Of the colors of the Angoras, the blue or maltese is a
favorite, and rather common, especially when mixed with white.
The white Angora is extraordinarily beautiful, and brings a high price
when it has blue eyes and all its points are equally good. The orange,
or yellow, and the black with amber eyes are also prize winners. There
are the tigers also, the brown tabby, and the orange and white. Mixed
colors are more common than solid ones; the tortoise-shell cat of three
colors and well mottled being considered particularly desirable.
The Persian cat differs from the Angora in the quality of its fur,
although the ordinary observer sees little difference between them. All
the long-haired cats originated from the Indian Bengalese, Thibetan,
and other wild cats of Asia and Russia. The Persian cat of very great
value is all black, with a very fluffy frill, or lord mayor's chain, and
orange eyes. Next to him comes a light slate or blue Persian, with
yellow eyes. The fur of the Persian cat is much more woolly than that of
the Angora, and sometimes in hot weather mats badly. The difference
between a Persian and an Angora can usually be told by an amateur, by
drawing the tail between the thumb and first finger. The Angora's tail
comes out thin, silky, and narrow, although it immediately "fluffs" up.
The Persian's tail does not compress itself readily into a small space.
The Persian cat's head is larger, its ears are less pointed, although it
should have the tuft at the end and the long hair inside. It is usually
larger in body and apparently stronger made, although slender and
elegant in appearance, with small bones and graceful in movement. The
colors vary, as with the Angora, except that the tortoise-shell and the
dark-marked tabby do not so frequently appear. The temper is usually
less reliable and the intelligence less keen than the Angora.
The Russian long-haired pet is much less common even than the Persian
and Angora. It is fond of cold weather, and its fur is denser,
indicating that it has been used to colder regions. Many of the cats
that we see are crosses of Angora and Persian, or Angora and Russian, so
that it is extremely difficult for the amateur to know a thoroughbred
cat which has not been mixed with other varieties.
There is also a fine short-haired cat coming from Russia, usually
self-colored. Mrs. Frederick Monroe, of Chicago, owns a very handsome
blue and white one.
In Pegu, Siam, and Burmah, there is a race of cats known as the Malay
cat, with tails only half the ordinary length and often contorted into a
sort of a knot that cannot be straightened, after the fashion of the pug
dog or ordinary pig.
There is another cat known as the Mombas, a native of the west coast of
Africa and covered with stiff, bristling hair. Paraguay cats are only
one-quarter as big as our ordinary cat, and are found along the western
coast of South America, even as far north as Mexico.
The royal cat of Siam is a short-haired cat, yet widely different from
other short-haired varieties. They are extremely pretty, with blue or
amber-colored eyes by day which grow brilliant at night. These cats also
frequently have the kink in the tail, and sometimes a strong animal
odor, although this is not disagreeable. The head is rather longer than
the ordinary cat's, tapering off sharply toward the muzzle, the forehead
flat and receding, and the eyes more slanting toward the nose than the
American cat's. The form should be slender, graceful, and delicately
made; the body long; the tail very thin and rather short; the legs short
and slender, and the feet oval. The body is of a bright, uniform color,
and the legs, feet, and tail are usually black.
The Manx cat is considered by many people as a natural curiosity. It
differs from the ordinary domestic cat but little, except in the absence
of a tail, or even an apology for one. The hind legs are thicker and
rather longer than the ordinary cat's, and it runs more like a hare. It
is not a graceful object when seen from behind, but it is an
affectionate, home-loving creature with considerable intelligence. The
Manx cat came from the Isle of Man originally, and is a distinct breed.
So-called Manx cats have tails from one to a few inches long, but these
are crosses of the Manx and the ordinary cat. In the Crimea is found
another kind of cat which has no tail. The cats known as the "celebrated
orange cats of Venice," are probably descendants of the old Egyptian
cat, and are of varying shades of yellow, sometimes deepening into a
sandy color which is almost red. There are obscure stripes on the body,
which become more distinct on the limbs. The tail is more or less ringed
toward its termination.
There has been a newspaper paragraph floating about stating that a prize
of several thousand dollars had been offered in England for a male
tortoise-shell cat. This is probably not true, as a Mr. Smith exhibited
a tortoise-shell he-cat at the Crystal Palace Show of 1871. Several
tortoise-shell and white toms have been exhibited since, and one of
these has taken nine first prizes at the Crystal Palace Show; but the
tortoise-shell he-cat is extremely rare. The real tortoise-shell is not
a striped tiger nor a tabby. It has three colors usually, black, yellow,
and red or brown; but these appear in patches rather than stripes. It is
said that the tortoise-shell cat is common in Egypt and the south of
Europe. It comes from a different stock than the ordinary short-haired
cat, the texture of the hair being different, as well as the color. The
tortoise-shell and white cat is much more common, and is the product of
a cross between a tortoise shell and a solid color cat. In this case the
hair is usually coarser and the tail thicker than in the ordinary cat.
Among cat fanciers there is a distinctive variety known as the
tortoise-shell tabby. As the tabby cat is one of the varieties of
striped or spotted cats having markings, broad or narrow, of bands of
black on a dark tan or gray ground, the tortoise-shell cat would have
both stripes and patches of color.
Of the tabbies, there are brown tabbies, silver tabbies, and red
tabbies. It is said that the red tabby she-cat is as scarce as the
tortoise-shell he-cat. The ordinary observer considers the brown tabby
with white markings as much the handsomest of the tabbies. But fanciers
and judges do not agree with him, the cats having narrow bands and spots
being the ones to take prizes. The word "tabby," according to Harrison
Weir, was derived from a kind of taffeta or ribbed silk which used to be
called tabby silk. Other authorities state that tabby cats got their
name from Atab, a street in Bagdad; but as this street was famous for
its watered silks perhaps the same reason holds. The tortoise-shell used
to be called, in England, the Calimanco. In America, it is sometimes
called the calico cat.
The red tabby is of a deep reddish or yellow brown, with a well-ringed
tail, orange or yellow eyes, and pink cushions to the feet. The brown
tabby is orange brown, with black lips, brown whiskers, black feet,
black pads, long tail, greenish orange eyes, and red nose bordered with
black. The spotted tabby must have no bands at all. It must be brown,
red, or yellow, with black spots. In the brown tabby the feet and pads
are black; in the yellow and red, the feet and pads are pink. The
spotted cat sometimes resembles a leopard, while the banded tabby
resembles more the tiger. Some of the spotted tabbies are extremely
handsome, and came originally from a cross between the ordinary cat and
the wild cat.
"Self-colored cats" are entirely of one color, which may vary in
different cats, but must never be mixed in the same cat, nor even shaded
into a lighter tone on the animal; and whether this color be black,
blue, red, or yellow, the self-colored cat should have a rich deep tint.
Of course the short-haired white cat is the handsomest of all. One of
the peculiarities of this white cat is that it is apt to be deaf. The
most valuable white cats, whether long or short haired, have blue eyes.
Sometimes they have one blue eye and one green or yellow, which gives a
comical effect, and detracts from their value. By the way, cross-eyed
cats are not unknown. The best white cats have a yellowish white tint
instead of grayish white, as the latter have a coarser quality of fur.
The jet-black cat is thought by many to be the most desirable. The true
black cat should have a uniform, intensely black coat, velvety and
extremely glossy; the eyes should be round and full, and of a brilliant
amber; the nose and pads of the feet should be jet-black, and the tail
long and tapering. It is difficult to find a black cat without a white
hair, as usually there are a few under the chin or on the belly.
The blue cat is the one ordinarily known in this country as the dark
maltese. There is a tradition that it came from the Island of Malta.
Many people do not consider it a distinct breed, but think it a
light-colored variety of the black cat. It is known sometimes as the
Archangel, sometimes as the Russian blue, the Spanish blue, the
Chartreuse blue, but more commonly in this country as the maltese. When
it is of a deep bluish color, or of the soft silver-gray maltese without
stripes, it is extremely handsome. The most desirable are the bluish
lilac-colored ones, with soft fur like sealskin. The nose and pads of
the feet are dark, and the eyes are orange yellow. The maltese and white
cat when well marked is extremely handsome, and there is no prettier
kitten than the maltese and white.
The black and white, yellow and white, blue and white, and in fact, any
self-colored and white cat is a mixture of the other breeds. If well
marked they are extremely handsome and are usually bright and
intelligent.
The solid gray cat is very rare. It is, in fact, a tabby without the
black stripes or spots.
In Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea there used to be no cat of any
kind. The Siamese cat has been imported to Australia, and some
authorities claim that the cats known in this country as Australian cats
are of Siamese origin. Madagascar is a catless region.
There is in this country a variety known as the "coon cat," which is
handsome, especially in the solid black. Its native home is in Maine,
and it is thought by many to have originated with the ordinary cat and
the raccoon. It grows somewhat larger than the ordinary cat, with thick,
woolly fur and an extremely bushy tail. It is fond of outdoor life, and
when kept as a pet must be allowed to run out of doors or it is apt to
become so savage and disagreeable that nothing can be done with it. When
it is allowed its freedom, however, it becomes affectionate,
intelligent, and is usually a handsome cat.
The term "Dutch rabbit markings" refers to the white markings on the cat
of two or three colors. Evidently, the cats themselves understand the
value of Dutch rabbit markings, as one which has them is invariably
proud of them. A cat that has white mittens, for instance, is often
inordinately vain, and keeps them in the most immaculate state of
cleanliness.