Ocicat - An accidental birth?

At first sight the Ocicat is easy to explain: an Abyssinian crossed with a Siamese.

But it almost didn't happen.

It was born almost by accident. The first breeder, an American from Michigan Virginia Daly was hoping to launch a new Siamese colour, the Abyssinian point Siamese - produced by crossing an Abyssinian cat with a Siamese. During test matings, a beige/white kitten with gold-coloured spots, called Tonga, was born.

This was not what Mrs Daly had hoped for so Tonga was neutered and sold as a pet. And that might have been both the begining and the end of the Ocicat cat if not for the arrival of Dr Clyde Keeler, a famous medical geneticist who had a special interest in cat genetics. He saw a picture of this unusual cat and the rest is history.

This new breed clearly filled a gap and breeders were intrigued enough to breed their own versions.

In the 1960s, if you wanted a wild-looking cat with numerous spots, your only alternative was a wild cat, hardly practical thankfully. Until the Ocicat, that is.

This cat may look quite similar to the common spotted domestic tabby, but the better ones are truly distinctive. The best quality cats have very well defined darker spots all over the cat. You can also have this cat with many background fur colours like silver, beige, grey etc.

During the 1990s it has been somewhat eclipsed by the popular Bengal breed, an Asian leopard cat crossed with a domestic cat. Some of the best Bengals look even more spotty, glittery and naturally wild, due to their ancestry.

What are they like? Sleek, elegant and beautifully spotty. They're affectionate and love to have company, both of people and other animals and since no wild cats are part of the breeding program all generations are fertile.

Some breeding lines will accentuate the Siamese features - the long, lithe and delicate look. Others will be more muscular and chunky. However, the great variety among this breed lies in its huge choice of colours. While some may look the same to an uneducated eye, it really takes an expert to name some of the colours!

Lets just say that you can have these spotted cats in any of the colour combinations you'll find in the domestic cat world.

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