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Maine Coon
Maine’s long-haired farm cats were established before a show standard pinned down their appearance. A brown tabby named Cosey won Best Cat at a New York show in 1895. Its collar and medal survive, a tangible link between the old farm-cat type and what became a registered North American breed.
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Norwegian Forest Cat
The Norwegian Forest Cat takes its name from a long-haired type of cat known in Norway. Look for the heavy ruff and a dense undercoat beneath the longer, water-resistant outer hair. Those are practical features in a wet winter, and the breed standard records the difference between the two layers.
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Siberian cat
Siberians come from a Russian population of sturdy long-haired cats. Their dense coat has three layers, and the breed took a much longer route to American show halls than to Russian farms. The first breeding imports reached the United States in 1990, putting a recent date on one part of a much older story.
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Chartreux
Some of the earliest recorded Chartreux breeding began with local blue-gray cats on Belle-Île off the coast of France. The Léger sisters used cats found around the island’s hospital in the late 1920s. That local colony gives the modern breed a documented starting point.
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European Shorthair
Swedish breeders developed the registered European Shorthair from ordinary domestic shorthairs in the 1940s. The breed standard preserves a sturdy build and colors already found in local cats. A familiar-looking tabby or solid coat makes sense here because the point was to keep a regional type recognizable.
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Manx cat
The short-tailed Manx is associated with the Isle of Man, where the trait occurred before cat shows. Individual Manx cats can have different tail lengths. The same genetic change that shortens the tail can also affect spinal development, so the short tail is more than a difference in appearance.
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Japanese Bobtail
Short-tailed cats appear in old Japanese art, centuries before the first Japanese Bobtails were brought into the United States in 1968. Look at the bend in the tail and the fur that makes it look like a pom-pom. The particular shape can vary from cat to cat within the breed.
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Kurilian Bobtail
The Kurilian Bobtail comes from short-tailed cats found on Sakhalin and in the Kuril island chain. Watch for the rounded, tufted tail and the substantial body beneath either coat length. The island population supplied the tail trait before it became the feature emphasized in the show name.
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Turkish Angora
The Turkish Angora takes its name from Ankara, formerly Angora. A preservation program at the Ankara Zoo concentrated on white long-haired cats, and two of its cats helped start an American breeding program in 1962. The silky coat predates that effort, and the breed now includes colors beyond white.
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Turkish Van
The modern Turkish Van breed traces back to cats two travelers brought from Turkey in the mid-1950s. Their color concentrated on the head and tail became the registered breed’s signature. Local cats around Lake Van can have a different appearance, including an entirely white coat.
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Arabian Mau
The Arabian Mau breed was drawn from free-roaming cats already living on the Arabian Peninsula. A breeding program in the United Arab Emirates brought that local type to a registry. The standard’s close-lying coat lacks a thick undercoat, an immediate difference from the coats of the northern cats in this list.
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Egyptian Mau
The breed grew out of naturally spotted cats associated with Egypt. Its documented modern history runs through Nathalie Troubetskoy, who began a breeding program while living in Rome and brought three Maus to the United States in 1956. The spots give the breed its character, while that journey explains how it entered American pedigrees.
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Korat
The Korat’s silver-tipped gray coat has a long association with Thailand. Breed histories identify it with one of the good-luck cats described in the country’s old illustrated cat poems. The modern breed keeps that coat as a hallmark, and the pale tips are easiest to see when the cat turns into the light.
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Thai cat
In Thailand the native pointed cat is known as the Wichienmaat. The registered Thai breed preserves a moderate, older shape, with dark points and blue eyes. Cats from the Thai population were imported as part of the modern project, so the ancestry connects to living cats as well as the country’s illustrated cat poems.
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Khao Manee
Thailand’s white Khao Manee is associated with an old collection of cat poems. A modern Khao Manee can have two different-colored eyes, but matched eyes also occur. Both belong to a breed whose white coat made the traditional description immediately recognizable.
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Sokoke
The Sokoke grew out of local cats from coastal Kenya near Watamu. Jeni Slater began the modern breeding program in 1978, and the registered breed took the name of the nearby Arabuko Sokoke forest. Its distinctive blotched tabby coat can have pale-looking centers within the darker markings.
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