Somali Cat

The Somali is an Abyssinian with long hair it is usually described as cat with a wild aspect because of the entanglement of its hair and of its dense tail, but in reality it’s a tamed and social race. It presents the dotted cloak characteristic of the Abyssinian, with colored bands on each hair.

Breed Origins
At first the history of the Somalian was similar to that of the Balinese. When occasionally there would appear whelps with long hair in the Abyssinian litters, the breeders would first sterilized them and then sell them.

At first they thought that they were product of the crossings with some longhaired race, but afterwards they found out that some lineage of the Abyssinians had been bearers of the recessive genes of the long hair during several generations. When this gene was present in both parents’ longhaired whelps  would be born.

Registration of the Pedigree
The first steps in the development of the Somalian as a race were given in Australia, country in which it was exposed for the first time in 1965, and in Canada, where the lineage was founded around the same epoch.

In 1969, a breeder of New Jersey, Evelyn Mague, got interested in this cat and baptized the race. The name is a homage to the relation of the race with the Abyssinian, but nothing more, nor the origin nor the development of the Somalian have any relation with Africa.

The U.S. Cat Fanciers’ Associations gave the race in 1978 the category of championship & other North American Associations followed their example.

Actually the race is also recognized in Europe and Great Britain.

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