CATS DE LUXE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 639, 31 January 1914, Page 6

CATS DE LUXE.

Although in the point of varieties, cats lag very far behind their canine rivals, there are a good many more different kinds than most people have any idea of- To the average mind there are only two sorts of cats — long and short-haired. This division is quite natural, and is followed by the Cat Club, yet that is not to say that there are only common, smoothhaired cats and the so-called Persians. A visit to a representative cat show would open the eyes of even those wise people who always have a cat in the house. The Siamese, for example, is not half as widely known as he deserves to be. His charm rests on the quaint, and he certainly has a curiously striking appearance. Unlike most cats, he never varies in colour save that, a3 the years roll on, his coat grows a darker shade. The mature Siamese cat in colour resembles a fawn pug dog, only his ears, muzzle, tail and legs are a rich shade of chocolate. An odd thing about this breed is that, when born, the k'ittens are nearly white, and many an inexperienced fancier has had a shock when first peeping at the nest of young ones. The colour soon deepens, however, and at a year is very beautiful. After that the contrast between the fawn body colour and the chocolate points become less distinct. This cat is supposed to come straight from the Royal palace of Siam, and, like the Pekinese spaniel or the pug, he has obtained a good deal of kudos from his aristocratic descent. A d'isputed point in connection with the breed is as to whether the tail should have a kink in it or not, but those who affirm the latter declare that they have the authority of the King of Siam for saying that the tail should be kinkless.

Writing of tails reminds one that the Manx cat has its ardent supporters. The fur of a Manx is somewhat longer and softer than thals of the ordinary puss. Like the Siamese, this cat is uncommonly long in the hind legs, wh'ich resemble those of a rabbit. Both have enormous propelling power behind, a tact that enables them to jump an extraordinary distance. It also gives them a curious gait when walking. The Blue Russian has obtained a good deal of notoriety of late years, its plush-like coat of slatey blue being much admired, but the name is a misnomer. There is a common idea that this cat first came from Archangel,, but the authorities have more recently determined that this is wrong, and that the cat is simply a blue addition of the ordinary smoothhaired breed. There is also the Abyssinian, or '"bunny" cat, which is very uncommon, chiefly noticeable for a coat of very reddish brown, ticked with darker markings of the same colour. As in dogs, there is a curious hairless variety, said to come from Mexico, but this undesirable felitie is practically unknown in England. Generally speaking, show cats aTB classified according to colour, and here again there are far more varieties than most people have any idea of. In the long-haired division alone there are black, white, blue, orange, cream, sable, smoke, tabby, spotted, ch'inchilla, bi-colour, tri-colour and tortoiseshell. There, is a curious fact about this last class, for though tortoiseshell females are by no means uncommon, a tortoiseshell male is practically unknown.