Siamese Cats

Siamese Cats

The Siamese cat, undoubtedly the most popular of cat breeds, is much different now than at the turn of the 20th century, even though it has kept its face, ear, paws, feet and tail markings handed down from the Himalayan breed.

Seal point cats were presented to English and American diplomats at the end of the XIX th century by the royal court of Siam, Ever since, this race has been the subject of public interest.

Even though the royal cats of Siam were of the seal point variety, some had lighter brown points and eventually were known as a distinct variety named chocolate point. A natural color dilution was attained by the seal points which produced cats with slate grey points, later called blue point.

As knowledge of the genetic cat colors developed, breeders discovered that a variety of colors could be obtained by carefully cross-breeding descendants with high quality Siamese. The red point was created by crossing with the red cat, red tabby and tortoise shell and a huge range of tabby points were developed by crossing with tabbies.

The GCCF and the CA in England, as well as other foreign associations, acknowledge all oriental short hair, and colored points as being Siamese. Others, such as the American CFA accept only the four original natural colors as being Siamese and class the red tabby (or lynx point) in the (color point) shorthair category.