Nebelung

The Nebelung (NAY-bel-ung) breed began the way so many of our breeds began, a stray cat wandered out of the mist and into someone's home and heart. In the early 1980s a black domestic vagabond-turned-housecat named Terri produced a litter of three- two shorthaired black females and one longhaired male. The father, another anonymous nomad, was thought to have been an Angora mix.

Terri's owner, Cora Cobb of Denver, Colorado, gave one of the female kittens, Elsa, to her son, and in 1984 this shorthaired black domestic produced a litter of kittens that included a blue semi-longhaired male kitten. Subsequently named Siegfried, this kitten became the Nebelung's foundation cat.

Elsa's next litter, fathered by the same shorthaired Russian Blue-type neighborhood Tom, produced a female kitten, Brunhilde, who possessed Siegfried's qualities and characteristics. By that time, Cobb was so taken with Siegfried's beauty and personality that she decided to see if she could preserve his qualities by breeding brother to sister. In May 1986 Siegfried and Brunhilde proved to Cobb that they bred true by producing a litter of three blue longhaired kittens. Cobb named the cat the Nebelung, a German word that means 'creatures of the mist'.

On the advice of TICA's genetics chairperson Dr. Solveig Pflueger, to whom Cobb turned for guidance in establishing her new breed, Cobb wrote the Nebelung's standard to match the Russian Blue's, almost word for word except for the coat length and the general opening description. TICA accepted the Nebelung for registration in September 1987.

At first, the Russian Blue breeders were cautious about accepting Cobb's newcomers and Cobb had difficulty finding a breeder who would provide registered Russian Blue breeding stock. Finally, the owner of Supreme Grand Champion Vladimir of Castlecats agreed to offer her cat for stud with one of Brunhilde's daughters, who produced a litter in June 1988.

Since then, the number of Nebelungs has slowly grown and, despite setbacks, the breed has caught worldwide attention. The Nebelung has appeared twice on the front cover of a Japanese cat magazine, and Nebelungs were shown and sold at the 1989 TICA cat show in Paris, France.

Only a handful of breeders are currently working with the Nebelung, but breeders are expecting that number to grow and hope to achieve recognition with CFA within the next few years.