ARTICLES A Thinking Cot. .. 21 Picture of Month .. 20 The Cot Boot ... 8 Check the Rules .. 26 Cots Confidential .22 AMERICA'S ONLY Fancy Blues .... 10 FEATURES Arabella ...... 45 MONTHLY The Model Cot ... 12 Cover ...... 4 Bock Fence ..... 55 Bengal Cot? No! .. 15 Editorial ...... 4 THE FANCY FOR CATS AND Geneti cs A to Z .. Readers Wrj te . ... 16 6 CiS Reporter .... 5 CAT OWNERS 1973 Few Lines ...... 14 Show Calendar ... 28 Question Box . ... FEBRUARY 18 Show Reports .... 31 PhOlO-Tf" Aliens 10 FEBRUARY 1973

TilE SONG TELL us that "the Southland gave birth to the blues" and where music is concerned. it is un~ deniable that we can trace 'the origins of the blues through the many develop­ SO LONG, FO/~ it WHILE­ ments which came about over the years directly to the South, whether from the work songs and folk laments on the plantations or the instrumental improvi­ sations from New Orleans and Memphis. SINGINJ THE BLUES Would that it were thus easy to trace the origins of the color blue in cats. The plain truth is that, although we have a reasonably good understanding by Jane S. Martinke of it genetically, we do not know where the very first blue cat appeared or what its breed. Blue, all are agreed, is a simple dilution of black and, since brown is genetically black, of brown as well. Thus we find blue in all the breeds tions in genes are not necessarily con­ from there, or it may be that these cats where black or brown appears: Persian, fined to one instance and the same were the first to come under reasonably, Himalayan, Birman, Balinese, American alteration can occur spontaneously in if somewhat primitive, scientific scru­ Short hair, Exotic Shorthair, Manx, Rex, widely scattered areas. We might con­ tiny and the name which attached itself Siamese and-although this will r:lise sider t he Rex gene as an example. It to this genetic dilution simply trickled eyebrows and ca use a flood of mail­ has appeared spontaneously in such down to ordinary cat lovers. Burmese, not to mention the breeds varied localities that it is improbable Among the cats from Asia Minor we which appear only in blue such as the in the extreme that there can be any are told that some were "gray." Since Russian Blue, the Korat, the Chartreux. familial relationship between the cats it is highly unlikely that these were Even the Havana Brown which has blue who have produced offspring with curly silvers it is not unreasonable to assume in the breeds which contribute to its coats. Moreover, such curly-coated cats that they were a form of blue and this makeup should be carrying blue genes. did not appear for the first time since may be our first recorded instance of Whatever the breed, being a simple re­ the Second World War as so manv seem the color among longhairs. We must cessive, blue to blue will breed true. to believe simply because onl~ then keep in mind that they were still so But where did the first blue cat was systematic work begun on them. uncomm on in Eng land as to be cate­ appear? Did all our present blues, of Back in the twenties and thirties they gorized as AOV in the shows uncil whatever breed, spring from one common were not too uncommon among our 1889 when a class was opened up for ancestor, or did this dilution gene ap­ domestic cat population here in the them which was then divided between pear spontaneously in many places? United States and they were then re­ males and females in 1890. Only after With all the study that has been lavished ferred to as Karakul Cats. No effort that time did they gain their great on such matters we still do not have was made at that time to isolate and popularity. any answer to this date whieh may be preserve this gene in order to create a The Russian Blues, which were considered complete ly authoritative. new type of cat which would breed true, originally called Archangel Cats be­ For in:;tance, there are those who something that could have been done cause they were brought into England believe that the Bluepoint Siamese is as easily then with those genes as now by sailors travelling between the port actually a hybrid cat which resulted if anyone had been sufficiently inter­ of Archangel and the northern reaches sole ly from out<.:rossing to a seIf·blue ested. Only the occasional old-timer of Great Britain, were, we are told, a cat and many believe this blue to have recalls their appearance when they richer, clearer blue than the domestic been what we now call an American were considered merely an interesting cats of England. Here is another wide­ Shorthair. Undoubtedly such crosses novelty and not a whole new addition ly removed location in our geography did occur and there is no reason to dis­ to our show cat roster. lesson. pute the premise that Bluepoints can When we lack cold hard facts on any There is a story to the effect that be developed in this way and probably subject and have no evidence to back the Chartreux cats were originally have been from time to time. But what up our opinions we have only one re­ brought to [he mother house of the of the further premise that this is the course. We must fall back on plain old Chartreusian order of monks from their l~t only way they can appear? There is common horsesense, so us utilize a missions in South Africa. These cats reason to question this. Specific altera- little of this commodity and see where were so completely different from either it brings us with blue cats. the British Blues or the Russian Blues The gene for blue is commonly re­ that they could not possibly have been ferred to as the' 'Maltese Dilution Fae­ eonfu:ied wirh either of these breeds Since OctDber 1968 when Mrs. Martinlte's first article on tbe Exotic Shorthair (The Mod or" and in books published many, many originally, although they have since Persian in the Mini.Skirt) appeared, there has years ago there is reference to cats been so interbred with the British not been a month when she has not been advis­ from Malta, some of which were red and Blues that they have lost the distinc­ ing, informing, com/orting or sti"ing up you readers. Her work has been 0/ immense bene/it some blue. Today country people, find­ tive characteristics which once set to al/ the cat faney and is an addition to the ing a blue among their barn denizens, them apart-or the British Blues took on cal literature 0/ immeasurable valu.e. None 0/ us will refer to it as a Maltese even with enough of the physica I traits of the can begrudge her a break after these fifty. three solid months, but she has promised not to forget no knowledge whatever of cat genetics Chartreux to bring them to something ns, and we can al/ look forward to her guidance or the terminology thereof. It may well more nearly approximating each other from time to time in the fnture as she finds snb· be that the first blue cats to attract the in appearance-and they have now been jects which require her attention. Thank. you, virtuall y absorbed into the British Blue Jane, for al/ your contributions -from yonr notice of common everyday people were readers, and from us at CATS. -R.D.S. in Malta or imported to other countries breed. (ATS MAGAZI E

Let us pur ue our geography a little of man's interference with the natura I Be all rhat as it may, in reading further and we find that the cat which breeding processes which would h ve rather widely about the old Blues, I am the people of Thailand consider to be taken place in their normal environment, struck by one fact. The ouly type of their true native domestic cat is not and his substitution of his own se lec­ Ellue in which the problem of t bby what we call the Siamese cat at all, rive breeding programs designed to markings is not mentioned in the old but rather a solid blue cat which we "set" certain characteriStics. Bur let literature is the Archange I at or Rus­ know as rhe Karat. US think instead of the type of the sian Blue which from the first seems It is gener Ily agreed by naturalists Siamese as we originally knew it in the to have been notably free of striping. that not all domestic catS sprang from early d y , within the memory of many This is the more remarkable when one the same rootstock among the feral of uS now living n not yet quite ready remembers that the only other type of cats. \lIhen one considers the widely to cash in their chips and pass to their domestic cat considered to be in ig­ scattered areas of the world in which reward from 01 age. The' were a far enous to the Russias was a longhaired bl ue cat s are found, with differences cry from today's Siamese and virrually cat which was always tabby with the of type di ctated ei ther by geography, identic I with the original Burmese for, exception f a very few black which climate or the wild ancestry from which just as the iamese of those days was were almost certainly analogous ro rhe they developed, the natural barriers much stockier nd with a more rounded black pancher, a plain ase of extreme which tend to limit species to cereain head than now, the Burmese was then melanism. In the intervening cenrury or circumscribed areas, and the lack of what was known as Foreign Shortha ir so stringent efforts have been made to human interference in the process of type and had not yet acquired its pre­ eradicate all traces of striping or shad­ natural selection until the comparative­ senr breadth nd cobbiness. ing from the Blu s of all breeds. This ly recent past it would be difficult So Ie t us carry this a step further. may even account for the fact that rec­ indeed to swallow whole without an The Burmese, being brown, cou ld ognition was withheld for so long from oversized grain of salt the theory thar quire conceivably have acquired a the Blue Tabbies, one of the earliest all of these cats from the West, the dilute gene for blue spontaneously and colors known. Incidentally, apropos of Orient, the fat north of the 1 orthern produc d rhe cat known now as Korat. rhe di fference of opinion as to whether Hemisphere and the deep south o"f rhe Then, after some of these blue cats rhe ground color of the Blue Tabbies Southern Hemisphere go back to one also carried the recessive gene or should be a pale blue, as some insist, common ncestor who chanced to have restrictive colorpointing, Bluepoint Sia­ or the "blued old ivory" f the standutd, a color gene which mutated to a dilute mese could also have come about in a I might call attention here co a state­ form. perfectly natura I nd normal way with· ment found in Gen lis lor Cell Br('cd­ Therefore the application of a litcle out the necessity for hybridizing. This ers by Roy Robinson. "In these n,­ of [he aforemention d horsesense brings would mean th:lt the Burmese, the Korat mals i.e., the blue tabbie ) the stripes us to the conclusion that, while almost and the Siamese are a II of rhe same are a slatey blue and the agouti areas certainly there c uld have been cross­ breed originally, differing now only are cream or fawny." mating between the Sea lpoint Siamese because of m n's imposition on them of While in either longhair or shorthair and a se If-blue of anOther br ed which his selective breeding practices, nd Blues soundness of coloring has al­ resulted in the Bluepoint Siamese this would mean that the Burmese, now most from the beginning taken pre­ eventually, thete ould quite as easily so hard to locate in its original habitat, cedence over the sh de of blue, again have been cases in which the dilution was the forerunner of the other twO almost from the beginning a preference factor oc urted spontaneously as well breeds. has been shown for the paler shades and where no hybridism need have been Ah well, we do not know. Prob. bly often spoken of as "lavender." Most invulv>u. It is quirt: likely that our we ,,1 ull no:vt::r know ~... ith cerrninty people consider this pastel coloration present Bluepoints have descended exactly the whats, the whens and the more aesthetically pleasing, but it h. s from both rhe e types of breeding. whys in the dim past when no one was Still anorher advantage. Any latent bothering to ob erve and record the tabby markings-and make no mistake, We might even indu Ige in a litcle hanges appearing in the feline popu­ they are there, latent in ev ry color flight into the realm of pure pecul tion I tion of the world. After all, far tOO and every breed to a greater or lesser and come up with orne interesting little was ever recorded about the bu­ degree-be me less noticeable in the thoughts for passing an idle hour or two, m n race and even there we must g in paler shade so that it appears easiet starring with some facts. Blue is the much of our knowledge from some rather to breed for oun ness of color with dilute uf black and also eal. iamese free-wheeling detective work based on them. One problem is encounrered here, are semi-albinos, the geneticists rell fragments of this and that as one puts though, in the Persians and, of course us. An albino of anyrhing springs origi­ together a jigsaw puzzle with half rhe then, in the Exotic Shorthairs as well. nally from something which is fuily pieces missing and tries to visualize In these br eds we want the deepest, colored, whatev r rhat color may have the complete picture as it really was. most brilli nt copper eyes possible ro been. If we accepr thar ~ealpoint was The guesses may be right or they may obtain. nfortunately depth of color in the first and original color of Siame 'e, be comi ally far afield from rhe truth eyes and c at seems to be genetically as many believe, then it is reason ble but we are constrained to keep on linked and so the more success we to assume that it sprang from a solid specularing, hunting, deriu ing, because achieve in breeding for the very pale brown cat. We know of nly one solid we are born with a thirst for know ledge pastel sh de of blue coat, the more brown at, the one we know as Bur­ and. wten fact is nor available, we likely we are to find the depth of tone mese. Restriction of color to' the points mus't do with fancy based on what jots in the eye color diminishing in direct is a recessive characteristic and we and tittles of fact we may be able co proportion as well. The real trick is [Q know that the original Burmese in this unearth, using our ratiocinative pro­ find a way to combine deep rich eye country, old Wong Ma u, carrie the re­ cesses to fill in the gaps as best we color with pale misty coat color and, cessive gene for colorpointing. Are, may. Cats, having no natural sense of until that can be achieved (and one then, the Burmese and the Siamese history and continuity, have not them­ does occ sion lly see it-very cns­ basica lly the same c r? selves left much for us to work on and ionally) to strike ome sort of happy Thi s premise is hard to ace pt when man in the dark age did his best to medium in which the color of both coar we vi ualize these tWO cats as we wipe them and all traces of them off and eyes will be acceptable if not com­ know them coday after many generations the face of the earth. (Conlmued 01/ page J2J 32 FE BRUARY 1973

, tartS MARTINKE page 10 THERE ARE MANY REASONS pletely ideal. Through the years the pendulum has swung first one way, then the other. Today one rarely sees the extremely pale Blues that once WHY YOU SHOULD CHOOSE used to be considered mandatory and which were commonly found, for much of that color was lost when it became ~ AS YOUR REGISTRY! necessary to lay more stress on eye color if we were not to end up with Blues with lemon-colored eyes. In the American Shorthair we do not have the problem with the eye color be­ cause gold is the requirement and the HERE ARE FOUR­ norm rather than copper, but it is much more difficult to achieve a truly paste I tone of blue in the coat of a shorthaired CFA offers the breeder absolute protection of valuable pedigrees cat. The outer part of the coat always and unparalleled registration convenience through Litter Registration. tends to be darker than that next to the skin and the outer part of the coat is closer to the skin in a shorthair cat, • creating an effect of a darker co t in general than that of a longhair of sim­ CFA offers Registration Rules that assure pedigrees which con­ ilar coloration in which the tipping is form to contemporary breedi ng practi ce. diffused as the fur lengthens and spreads out. Indeed I would eye an American Shonhair somewhat askance • if it did possess a truly pastel blue CFA breeders know that a CFA Registration and a 3-generation coat and would wonder how many gen­ erations back the Persian had been CFA Pedigree are tangible factors affecting the purchase and sale of introduced into its heritage via the wrong side of the blanket. pure-bred kittens. The Bluepoint Siamese and the • Balinese and Himalayans have some­ what of a problem to overcome. Na­ ture's own dilution of brown tends to CFA registration offers breeders the prestige of being a part of be a soft blue with a hint of taupe in the most dedicated organization of its kind in the world. it, whereas the blue which is the dilute of true black will be much cold­ er in tone. Instead of recognizing this • fact of nature and making of it an ad­ vantage by requiring this natural shade ~ of blue-and it is a lovely color-the REGISTER WITH standards were unnaturally slanted toward the cold blue. One so seldom THE BREEDERS' REGISTRY! sees it in the colorpointed breeds, a fact which is deplored constantly in • print, but why should there be such THE CAT FANCIERS' ASSOCIATION, INC. surprise about it. It is an unnatural P.O. BOX 430 RED BANK NJ 07701 color for these cats and while, if the cold tone is what the Siamese breeders prefer and consider to be more beauti­ Blues, Bluecreams, Creams ful and more desirable, it may be worth­ BALINESE DALAYN PERSIANS while to pursue it, they must be pre­ BALJ-KIE'S STUD SERVICE Ki ttens Avoi Joble from­ pared to have to work harder to achieve TO APPROVED QUEENS Top Bloodlines it than would be necessary if they were -KITTENS AVAILABLE­ DALAYN'S SOFTLY SP, BP, CP - Rai-Mar mere ly refining and perfecting Mother Background Exclusively June. Burgett-Dawn Walasek Nature's own dictum as to the proper 107 Seitz Drive Edi'h Och., 212/634-9863 Camillus NY 13031 shade for the dilute of seal. 6940 Alm.da Aye. A.ye.n" Ph, 315/487·0876 The /{ex has its own difficulties in achieving sound blue as it has in reaching the perfection of other breeds PAmMT (AimT JALAINE PERSIANS in any color, for it does not have the natural advantage of guard hairs. SABlE BURMESE SlAM~SE -SILVERS­ Rexes have, perhaps, slightly less dif­ KITTENS ficulty with blue than with some of the SU'SI£ PAGE WHITES-All Eye Colors - BLACKS other colors, but the natural unsound­ Pt.. ~m l!99-ICI8IJ M.s. Elaine Linton 4 Clyth D•. Pe.th lOOiS fOOTHIl..L BLVD. ness of the blue undercoat which in Wilmington, DE 19803 Ph: 302/478-3522 'u\KE VI TERRACE, CA 91H, them cannot be concealed by an outer CATS MAGAZINE 33 coat will be evident to some extent. It Consider the similarity in the de­ is probably unrealistic to be as severe scription of the color f these two cats, FAMOUS BRIAR BRAE MANX in judging the color of this breed as each of which is recognized only in the Kittens, Breeding Pair5, Stud Service,Many Colorl one would be with the Persian or the one color. There is, and has always American Shorthair. Barbara St. George. been, only one honest color in the Rus­ Lang Ridge Rd., The Russian Blue is still another sian Blues from the time of their first Bedlar,d, NY 10506 matter. Traditionally this breed has importation from Archangel to England­ Ph: 914/PO 4-4346 been supposed to have a plushy type of namely, blue. There is some evidence coat, very short and very thick. This, that the Karats do actually occur in -WINETA­ in a good specimen, tesembles the other colors such as lavender even "The Other Canadian Persian nap of a carpet or costume velvet though no color other than silver-blue BreeJer" Cream, Blve l Bluecream, which, when the fingers are rubbed has official sanction for the show ring. Kittens against the nap, shows dark where it The origin of either breed is shrouded (For Show and Breeding) has been disturbed. Now recently it in utter darkness. They are blue and Int Gr Ch Wineta's Buster Blue has been found that at least part of therefore a dilute color. There must, Joan & Frank Jeffries this effect is actually due to the fact sure1y, somewhere at sometime in each r 1485 Dixie Rd., Mississouga, Ontario that each individual hair is tipped with case, have been a black or a br wn '------4161278-5942 sparkling silver and it is when these cat in the background. We have specu­ silver tips of the very thick coat, re lated above about a possible relation­ pushed aside and separated that the ship between the Burmese and the Brown & Blue Tobby Persians effect of darkness is noticed. Ru sian Karat which would explain it, but no­ ~.!~or:!~'''' Ch P/oywlckey's Li/' Doll Blue breeders now are campaigning to where do we have any hint whatever of -In'1uiries In'l11 d­ (Pe Prke Approved) have the Russian Blues removed from a black or a brown which might have Mrs. Dione S. Castor consideration as solid colored cats given rise to the Archangel cat. This 1866 Lambert Rood Jenkintown, PA 19046 where they have traditionally been is a mystery which may never be 215/884-0917 placed, feeling that they are actually solved and an unsolved puzzle is a two colors, blue and silver, in shaded fertile field for the rise of legends. pattern. For this reason, too, they In any case, each of these breeds has IAR-AN-CA question the pr vision of the standard added silver tipping to its basic blue. PERSIANS: BURMESE which states that the lighter or laven­ Does this render invalid all our predica­ SILVERS· SOLIDS· SMOKES der shades of blue are preferred, for tions of separate origins of the various they feel that a very light blue does not blues due to wide geographical separa­ 169 Jefferson Avenue offer sufficient contrast with the silver tion and natural barriers? Not neces­ FAIRPORT, NY 14450 tipping to allow the sparkling effect to sarily, for, although the odds against Barbara King 716/377·3720 shine forth in all its glory. Origina.Jly mutation to both silver-tipping and blue the Russian Blues had a coat far more appearing in separate locations are plushy than it is tod y and it was so greater by far than against the blue NARA SIAMESE dense it stood straight off from the gene by itself, this is not impossible. Champion Moles at Stud body even though it was quite short in On the other hand we cann t forget KITTENS length. Since this would have crowded that widely separated civilizations _ F\: T Pr id,. J~ppro\le,~­ the silver tipping together so closely such as the Egyptians and the Incas Fronk & Ruth HAMMERLE as to create a solid effect, perhaps arti ved at the same systems of mathe­ 3654 Mi ramor Way this is what those who originully form­ matics, astronomy, surgery elC. appar­ Oxnard, CA 93030 Ph: 805/483-3834 ulated the standard saw, considering ently independently since contact be­ the change of color when brushed back tween these races would seem unlikely, to be an effect like nap or a trick of yet we cannot rule out entirely the MAGIC PERSIAN light, not realizing that there was an possibi lity that there was communica­ SOLIDS & CAMEOS actual difference in color at the tips. tion of sOme sort between them and, in Cos/ilia, Simbeloir & Woodkiff Blooe/lines The more tipping there is the more this case, catS from di verse regions -KITTENS Available Now­ beautiful the cat and the paler it will might have been scattered hither and Mitzi x Ch Irene's Cream of the Crop look, and so they wrote the standard to yon. However, we must also remember show that the lighter effect was con­ that although some of the scientific 412/495-7570 Beaver, PA 15009 sidered more desirable. This seems far lore of the ancient Egyptians was dup­ more likely than that the silver tipping licated or copied by the Incas, Egypt now seen so widely and in such strong was also one of the earliest strong­ quality is a recent development of the holds of the cat, the first to recognize B'_~... 0._ .... breed. the need for it, and if sheir other w""e...,t ••'I·. The Korat too is supposed to have specialties had been passed on to fI' ~

Russian Blue standard specifies that the useful cat might well have been IIHIT it d un1 'rf lUI 17U 11'0,,,",."0,,,. the guard hairs are to be "silver-tipped one of rhe contributions. Yet it was IlClI"l11h He 176<19 Ph: '19 1.2·0140 giving the cat a silvery sheen of lust­ not until the European arrived in the rous appearance," the Karat standard New World that the domestic cat rri ved calls instead for "silver-blue over all, in the Western Hemisphere. There is Pe Pride tipped with silver, the more silver endless room here for speculation then, Approved tipping the better. Where the coat is but it is fru itless when there is no hope t TABBIES WITH A FLA5Hl of corroborating or refuting the con­ 0/50 short the sheen a silver is intensi­ Sorids and Smokes fied." If one is to accept that the clusions arrived at. Iii KITTENS '~G~~;~ Russian Blue is not a solid color cat, This is the last in this very long AVAILABLE series of articles. Thank you for read­ Noncee & Jim Beamer 7062 Jelly Lone then one must necessarily put the Houston TX 77072 713/498-2579 Karat in the same category. ing them.