While Persians and their relatives have a laid-back, mellow personality, Exotics are also playful and enjoy a good game of catching the catnip mouse between bouts of catching a few ZZZs. Because of the American Shorthair influence, Exotics are reported to be somewhat livelier than Persians. Undoubtedly, the Exotic personality is, if not identical, very much like the Persian’s—laidback, loyal, sweet, and affectionate. They want to be involved in their favorite humans’ lives and will quietly follow them from room to room just to see what they are doing. They also enjoy hugs and cuddles, and lavish their humans with purrs and licks of affection until the thick coat drives them away to lounge on cool kitchen linoleum or cold fireplace bricks. Because of the short coat, their guardians can spend more time playing with their Exotics than grooming them.

In the late 1950s American Shorthair fanciers, motivated by the popularity of the Persian, secretly began to mix Persians into their American Shorthair bloodlines to improve body type and to introduce the beautiful and favored silver Persian color into the American. (At that time and until 1965 American Shorthairs were known as Domestic Shorthairs.) Because of this hybridization, the boning of the American grew heavier, the head rounder, and the nose shorter, and the coat denser and longer. Other American Shorthair breeders, appalled at the changes occurring in the breed, became determined to disallow any Americans that showed signs of hybridization. Exotic Shorthairs might have faded away into cat fancy history if it wasn’t for the efforts of CFA judge Jane Martinke, and the Exotic Shorthair was first accepted for championship status by the CFA in 1967. CFA breeders were then allowed to shift their American Shorthair/Persian hybrids into the newly formed Exotic Shorthair classification. At first, Exotic breeders used Burmese and Russian Blues in addition to American Shorthairs to introduce the shorthair gene. As the breed began to gain in popularity, and as the gene pool grew larger, the CFA began limiting the outcrosses. In 1987 the CFA closed the Exotic to shorthair outcrosses altogether, leaving the Persian as the CFA’s only allowable outcross. In 1971, the first Exotic Shorthair achieved the status of grand champion.Today, the Exotic is one of the most popular purebred shorthairs.