History and Origin
During the last hundred years or so, hairless kittens have
spontaneously appeared in litters of otherwise ordinary
domestic shorthairs. This natural, spontaneous mutation
appears to be a fairly common one, since hairless cats have
been found in Canada, France, Morocco, Mexico, Russia,
Australia and the United States. Pictures of the “Mexican
Hairless” even appeared in Frances Simpson's 1903 classic
Book of the Cat. However, many of these lines were never
developed or died out from lack of support or from breeding
difficulties.
The first formal breeding program took place in Canada in
the 1960s, when a pair of domestic shorthairs produced a
hairless kitten. In 1970 the Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA)
granted provisional status to the “Canadian Hairless.” The
next year, however, CFA withdrew recognition due to the
health problems and breeding difficulties. At the time, it
was believed that the gene associated with hairlessness was
lethal. That line became extinct.
The Sphynx as we know it today began in 1975, when Minnesota
farm owners Milt and Ethelyn Pearson discovered a hairless
kitten had been born to their normal-coated farm cat,
Jezabelle. This kitten, appropriately named Epidermis, was
joined the next year by another hairless kitten named
Dermis. Both were sold to Oregon breeder Kim Mueske, who
used the kittens to develop the breed. Minnesota breeder
Georgiana Gattenby also worked with kittens from the Pearson
line, using rex cats to widen and strengthen the gene pool.
These lines proved to be healthy. The name “Sphynx” was
chosen, named after the Great Sphinx of Giza.
In 1978, Canadian breeder Shirley Smith rescued a hairless
male kitten, Bambi, that she neutered and kept as a pet.
Bambi's mother, a domestic shorthair, subsequently produced
two more hairless offspring. In 1983 Smith sent the two
kittens to Dr. Hugo Hernandez in the Netherlands. Dr.
Hernandez bred the two kittens, named Punkie and Paloma, to
a Devon rex. The descendants of these cats, along with the
descendants of the Pearson cats, became the foundation of
today's Sphynx. Breeders discovered that even though the
hairless gene is recessive to short hair, the gene is
incompletely dominant over the recessive gene governing the
Devon rex coat. Crosses between the Sphynx and Devon rex
helped widen the gene pool and increase numbers.
In February 1998, the Sphynx was accepted for CFA
registration, a great stride for the breed. In 2000, 120
Sphynx were registered in CFA, according to CFA's 2000
registration totals. This gives the Sphynx a ranking of 33rd
out of the 40 breeds CFA accepts. Fanciers are currently
working on gaining the Sphynx provisional status in CFA.
Then it's on to championship, which the Sphynx has already
achieved in most other associations. |
History
Appearance
Personality
Grooming
Warning
Choosing your Sphynx |
