Turkish Angora Kitten Breed

Although the Angora cat was known in Western Europe from the sixteenth century or earlier (they were seen at shows in the early days of the Cat Fancy); in later years they were overtaken in breeders' preference by the Persian, and in the twenty-eth century the breed disappeared from everywhere except its native land. It was revived after World War Two with cats exported from Ankara (old name Angora) in Turkey, where the Zoo had set up a breeding programmed, to North America, Britain and Scandinavia. It was granted full Championship status in the USA in the early 1970s under the name Turkish Angora. The Angora recognized by the GCCF Britain is a different breed. The Turkish Angora's long, svelte body, and slender tail, its wedge-shaped head and oriental eyes present a quite different appearance from the longer-furred Persian cat. The coat is very fine and silky, with none of the woolly undercoat found in the Persian and only medium long, although long fur would not be considered a fault. It has a wavy tendency but should lie flat along the body except around the chin, neck, underside and tail; it is longer at the ruff and should be plume-like on the tail. The tail is carried lower than the body but not trailing, though when moving the relaxed tail is brought forward horizontally over the body, sometimes almost touching the head. When first re-established many people thought of the Angora only as a white cat and some bodies accepted no other color. Now, a wide range of colors and pat-terns are recognized.

Medium size, long, graceful but firm and well-muscled, sexton long slim legs, longer at thereat, with small oval paws; tailing and tapering.

Long, wide between the ears, narrowing to a fine muzzle with no whisker break; in profile wedge-shaped, without stop, neither round nor point-ed and avoiding exaggerated type; ears large, pricked, widest base, set high and continuing the lines of the wedge.

Large, almond-shaped and slanting, with good width between, green in all except for blue-eyed and odd-eyed whites to comply with GCCF standard but the CFA standard requires amber instead of green.

Medium long, longer on ruff, very fine with a silk-like sheen, full brush and tufts on ears.

The GCCF recognizes the same range of colors and patterns as for the Oriental Shorthairs, the CFA any colorant pattern except for choc-late, lavender and those with pointed coats.