Oriental Shorthair Kitten Breed

These are cats of Siamese type but without the pointed coat pattern. They include self-colored cats, tipped (in Britain), shaded and smoke coats, tortoiseshell and dilute mixtures, tabby, spotted and ticked coats, tortie (or patched) tabbies and range of color varieties — chestnut (in the USA), caramel (in Britain), cinnamon and fawn. These four colors are rarely seen in other breeds although they would be permissible for some breeds which have Any Other Color classes in which they could be shown. In Britain, under GCCF standards, the self white is placed in its own breed: the Foreign White. At one time the other self colors were also known as Foreign Black, Lilac etc. The GCCF places the Havana with this group, but it is the equivalent of the American Chestnut Oriental Shorthair, the Havana Brown known in the USA is a further development with less Siamese type. The ideal Oriental Shorthair is a beautifully balanced cat with a long head with width between the ears, narrowing in perfectly straight lines to a fine muzzle, and forming a balanced triangle with no break or pinch at the whiskers, carried on ascender neck and with a long svelte body. Unlike the pointed-patterned Siamese, all these cats have green eyes, except that GCCF also has shades of copper to green in the Oriental Cream, Red Cream adsorptive Tabbies and their silver equivalents, and in the Oriental Shaded in its red cream and tortie forms, and excepting the white, which in the USA may have green, blue or odd-eyes.

Long and svelte, in conformation like the Siamese; legs longhand slim with small oval paws, hind legs higher than the frontlets; tail long and tapering.

The head and profile should be wedge-shaped, neither round nor pointed. The GCCFstandard specifically states that it should avoid exaggerated type; ears are large, wide at the base and their setting con-tines the lines of the wedge.

Oriental almond shape, slanting towards the nose with good width between. Green in most colors accepts described in the text.

Very short and fine in texture, glossy and close-lying.

Self, tabby, spotted, ticked, tipped, shaded, smoke, tortoiseshell and dilute forms ranging through the colors described in the text