Oriental Cat

In the past, blue-eyed, colorpointed cats were owned by royalty and were kept in the Royal Palace of Siam. The Siamese breed, however, is only one of several varieties native to the area. The Cat-Book Poems, a manuscript written in Siam (now Thailand) some time between 1350 and 1767 A.D., describes and shows a variety of cats native to the area, including solid black, black and white bicolor, solid brown, blue/gray, and shaded silver, as well as cats bearing the point-restricted color pattern. The cats portrayed in the book had slim bodies and legs, large ears, and tapered muzzles, much like that of today's Siamese and the related breeds.

The first cats imported to England from Thailand were often solid or bicolored. It wasn't until the 1920s when the Siamese Cat Club issued a statement excluding all other colors that the blue-eyed pointed cat became the Siamese norm in Britain.

The concept of cats with the Siamese body style but with a wide range of colors and patterns had captured the interest and imagination of cat fanciers. It was only a matter of time before these cats entered the cat fancy, with a little help from breeders with a flair for exterior decorating.

The Oriental seen in the show halls today is not a direct import from Thailand, but rather a Siamese hybrid developed in the 1950s and 1960s. The breed's creation was deliberate, breeders wanted a cat that looked and acted like a Siamese but that came in a wider range of colors. In the 1950s British breeders crossed Siamese cats with domestic shorthairs and Russian Blues. In the late 1960s American breeders, fascinated with the British Orientals, took up the torch and crossed Siamese, domestic shorthairs, and Abyssinians to create a new look. Body style was not sacrificed for color and pattern, and backcrosses to the Siamese preserved type and personality traits.

The Oriental breeders met with initial resentment from Siamese breeders who were resistant at best to the idea of another Siamese-type hybrid, but, since the way had already been paved by breeders of the Colorpoint Shorthair (which gained CFA acceptance in 1964), the opposition didn't stop Orientals from gaining ground.

In 1972 the CFA accepted the Oriental Shorthair for registration, and granted full Championship status in 1977. Since then, the Shorthair has rapidly increased in popularity. In recent years the Oriental Shorthair has been consistently ranking high among short haired breeds.

Since the Siamese has the long haired Balinese, and the Colorpoint has the longhaired Javanese, it seems only right that the Oriental Shorthair should have his own long haired variant, a cat with a long, lean, classy chassis, silky fur, and a full palette of colors to choose from. To that end, the Oriental Longhair is the newest addition to the long line of Siamese-type cats. Although currently rare, the breed is slowly growing in popularity and appeals to the cat lover who wants the elegant body type and personality of the Siamese, the wash-and-wear hairdo of the Balinese, and the myriad of colors of the Oriental Shorthair.

The Oriental Longhair was developed in the late 1970s by breeders who crossed the Oriental Short-hair with the Balinese. The breed achieved official recognition in 1985 when TICA accepted them for Championship status, and they were accepted for registration by the CFA in February, 1988. In 1996 in the CFA, the Oriental Shorthair and Oriental Longhair breeds were combined into one breed division simply called Oriental. At the time of this writing, the Oriental Longhair is recognized for Championship in ACA, CFA, TICA, UFO, ACFA, and AACE.