HISTORY OF CATS

Spread of Cats
As trade routes developed around the Mediterranean and spread into Asia they took cats with them. Around 900BC the Phoenician traders took cats to Italy and from there they slowly spread across Europe. During the cats spread across Europe genes from the European wild cat were introduced. The Roman army took cats all over western Europe to protect their feed stores. Cats arrived in England around 1000AD with Viking settlers.

All early cats were shorthaired but in eastern Asia longhaired varieties were being developed by selectively breeding from cats with the gene for longhair. This gene for longhair spread from southern Russia into Pakistan, Turkey, and Iran eventually appearing in the Angora and Persian breeds. Longhaired cats arrived in Italy from Turkey in the 16th century.

The first colonists of the New World took shorthaired cats with them, later settlers took a variety of cats with them to Australia and New Zealand.

The oldest coat colours have had time to spread all over the world, they include black, blue (which is a dilute form of black) and orange (ginger). The Siamese and Burmese colour patterns are more recent and originated in south-east Asia, they have been perpetuated and spread because of human interest.

The heavier, thick set body type, found in British Shorthairs shows genetic influence of the European wild cat. The foreign and Oriental breeds retain the fine boy of the African wild cat.