Somali cat

In the 1940s, a British breeder named Janet Robertson exported some Abyssinian kittens to Australia, New Zealand and North America. Descendants of these cats occasionally produced kittens with long or fuzzy coats. In 1963, Mary Mailing, a breeder from Canada, entered one into a local pet show. Ken McGill, the show's judge, asked for one for breeding purposes.

The first known long-haired Abyssinian, named 'Raby Chuffa of Selene', appeared in North America in 1953. Breeders assume that the long-haired gene was passed down through his ancestry. Most breeders were appalled by the sudden difference in appearance in their litters and refused to mention them. However, some breeders were intrigued and continued to breed the long-haired Abyssinian. At first, other Abyssinian breeders looked down upon the new development of the Somali and refused to associate them with the Abyssinian. They worked hard to keep the long-haired gene out of their own cats.{{cite web|url=https://www.petmd.com/cat/breeds/somali|title=Somali Cats {{!}} Somali Cat Breed Info & Pictures {{!}} petMD|website=petmd.com|access-date=June 25, 2025}}

An American Abyssinian breeder Evelyn Mague also received longhairs from her cats, which she named "Somalis". Mague put out a call for other cats to breed with her own long-haired Abyssinians and found the many other breeders internationally that had been breeding long-haired Abyssinians for several years already.{{r|PETMD}} Don Richings, another Canadian breeder, used kittens from McGill, and began to work with Mague. The first Somali recognized as such by a fancier organization was Mayling Tutsuta, one of McGill's cats. In 1979, the breed was recognized by the CFA in North America.{{cite web|url=https://cfa.org/breed/somali/|title=Somali|website=cfa.org|access-date=June 25, 2025|archive-date=May 23, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250523024706/https://cfa.org/breed/somali/|url-status=live}} The new breed was accepted in Europe in 1982.{{cite web|url=http://www.micetto.com/race/chat-Somali|title=Le Chat Somali|website=www.micetto.com|access-date=2016-04-21}} By 1991, the breed was broadly (though not universally) accepted internationally.{{cite book |last=Fogle |first=Bruce |author-link=Bruce Fogle |title=The Encyclopedia of the Cat: The Definitive Visual Guide |publisher=Dorling Kindersly Pr |isbn=978-1-4053-3490-7 |page=224 |year=2001 |orig-year=1997}}

The name "Somali" is in reference to the African nation, Somalia. Somalia borders Abyssinia, which is modern day Ethiopia. The name of the breed is a unique interpretation of the Ethiopian-Somali conflict; Mague charitably assumed that since the land borders were a human creation, so are the genetic borders between the Abyssinian cat and the long-haired Abyssinian.{{r|PETMD}}

Mague also founded the Somali Cat Club of America, which included members from Canada as well. The SCCA worked to grant the breed championship status by the CFA, which occurred in 1979. In 1975, the CFA founded the International Somali Cat Club.{{r|PETMD}}

Somalis are recognised for their energetic and social nature. Their appearance with sleek bodies, long tails, and large pointed ears have earned them the nickname of "Fox Cat". Their ticked coats contain between four and twenty colours on each hair are very fine in texture making their coats softer to the touch than those of other cat breeds. The cat itself is medium-large in size.{{cite web|url=http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/cats-101/videos/somali/|title=Somali|website=Animal Planet|access-date=2016-04-11}}{{cite book|title=Legacy of the Cat|last1=Stephens|first1=Gloria|last2=Yamazaki|first2=Tetsu|publisher=Chronicle|year=1990|location=San Francisco}} Within the GCCF, short haired Somalis are recognised separately from Abyssinian cats.{{cite web|title=Coat types and colours|url=https://www.somalicatclub.com/coat-types-colours|website=Somali Cat Club}}

All Somali cats have a ticked tabby pattern. The usual or ruddy coloured Somali has a golden brown ground colour ticked with black, so the official genetic term is black ticked tabby. The coat colour names in Somalis refer to the ticking colour. There are 28 colours of Somali in total although certain organisations accept only some of these colours. All organisations that register Somalis permit usual (genetically black, a.k.a. ruddy or tawny in Somalis), blue, sorrel (genetically cinnamon, a.k.a. red in Somalis), and fawn. Most clubs also recognise usual/ruddy silver, blue silver, sorrel/red silver, and fawn silver. Other colours that may be accepted by some registries include chocolate, lilac, red, cream, usual-tortie, blue-tortie, sorrel-tortie, fawn-tortie, chocolate-tortie, lilac-tortie, and silver variants of these (e.g. blue-tortie silver).

The Somali is one of the more commonly affected breeds for pyruvate kinase deficiency. An autosomal recessive mutation of the PKLR gene is responsible for the condition in the breed.{{cite book |author1-first=James A.C. |author1-last=Oliver |author2-first=Cathryn S. |author2-last=Mellersh |editor1-first=Barbara |editor1-last=Cooper |editor2-first=Elizabeth |editor2-last=Mullineaux |editor3-first=Lynn |editor3-last=Turner |title=BSAVA Textbook of Veterinary Nursing |date=2020 |publisher=British Small Animal Veterinary Association |isbn=978-1-910-44339-2 |edition=Sixth |chapter=Genetics |page=131}}

Somalis may also have hereditary retinal degeneration due to a mutation in the rdAc allele. This mutation is also seen in Abyssinians, Siamese cats, and other related breeds.{{cite journal|last1=Narfström|first1=Kristina|last2=David|first2=Victor|last3=Jarret|first3=Oswald|last4=Beatty|first4=Julia|author5-link=Vanessa Barrs |last5=Barrs|first5=Vanessa|last6=Wilkie|first6=David|last7=O’Brien|first7=Stephen|last8=Menotti-Raymond|first8=Marilyn|date=2009-09-01|title=Retinal degeneration in the Abyssinian and Somali cat (rdAc): correlation between genotype and phenotype and rdAc allele frequency in two continents|journal=Veterinary Ophthalmology|language=en|volume=12|issue=5|pages=285–291|doi=10.1111/j.1463-5224.2009.00710.x|pmid=19751487|issn=1463-5224}}

File:Cat Somali.jpg|Ruddy Somali

File:Ruddy Somali female.jpg|Ruddy Somali female

File:Somali cat.jpg|Ruddy (usual) Somali kitten

File:Blue Somali kitten age 3 months.jpg|Blue Somali kitten

File:Sorrel (red) Somali - 20060816.jpg|Sorrel Somali

File:Chat Somali - Couleur Fawn - Hrakkar de la Rivaleraie.JPG|Fawn Somali

File:Chat Somali - Couleur Lilac - Nainasus Torrylinn.JPG|Lilac Somali

File:Roo Female Somali in Cat Café Tokyo.jpg|Female Somali in a cat café

• {{cite book|last=Edwards|first=Alan|others=Trevor Turner (Consultant) John Daniels (Photographer)|title=The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Cats Cat Breeds & Cat Care|orig-year=1999|year=2005|publisher=Hermes House|location=London|isbn=978-0-7548-1277-7|oclc=76934417}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Somali (cat)}}

• [https://cfa.org/breed/somali/ Cat Fanciers Association - Somali]
• [https://tica.org/breed/somali/ The International Cat Association - Somali]
• [https://www.somalicatclub.com/ Somali cat club of Great Britain]

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Category:Cat breeds