Cornish rex cathistory and development

TheCornish Rex cat may resemble the statues seen in Ancient Egypt, butexperts say that this cat most certainly has its roots in England.

Mistbesque Wildfire Wildflames, red male, owned by Naomi Strydom and bred by Roeleen Bloemhof. Photo ©Theresa Fouche

In1950, a tortoiseshell and white house cat, named Serena, belonging toMs Nina Ennismore of Cornwall, England gave birth to a litter of 5kittens.

One of these kittens, a cream (some say red) male, had anunusual curly coat, large ears and foreign-type body with long legs.

Hewas named Kallibunker and he was unaware that he would become thefoundation cat for a new cat breed.

It was on the advice of Ms Ennismore"s vet that she consulteda geneticist to establish whether his wavy coat was due toenvironmental factors or due to a mutation.

The geneticist suggestedthat Kallibunker be bred back to his mother, Serena.

This union produced3 kittens, all males. Two had curly coats and one had straight hair.Only the one curly-coated kitten survived, his name was Poldhu.

When twocurly-coated cats were bred together, they produced only curly coatedcats. This proved that it was a recessive gene that caused thecurly-coated trait.

In subsequent breeding programs, the curly coated cats were bred to Siamese cats, Burmese catsand British Shorthair.

The aim of the inbreeding and outcrossing was topreserve the recessive mutation and to create genetic diversity (inother words, to increase the gene pool).

The new cat breed was named Cornish Rex - to celebrate the county inwhich the breed was founded and the "Rex" after the curly-coated rexedrabbits discovered in France in 1919.

Despite the excitement around the discovery of this new mutation, thecat did not prove as successful as Ms Ennismore had hoped.

Sheabandoned her breeding program in 1956 and sadly, both Kallibunker andhis mother, Serena were euthanized. (Pity homes could not be found for them!)

Another breeder, Brian Sterling Webb, took up where Ms Ennismore leftoff, but by this time only two male Cornish Rex Cats remained.

Thebreed was to say the least, endangered.

Poldhu (Kallibunker"s son), whowas a dilute tortie and white cat, produced healthy kittens that weresent to the United States in 1957.

These cats were to become thefoundation cats of the American variety of the new cat breed. 

Poldhu was unfortunately not destined for greatness! During aroutine procedure to obtain tissue samples for research, he was"accidentally" castrated! (Remind me not to visit this surgeon).

Poldhu"s son, Champagne Chas was left theunenviable task of "keeping the breed alive".

When the Devon Rexwas discovered in 1969, it was hoped that the mutation was the same andthat it could revitalize the Cornish Rex.

But the genes proved to bedifferent - the cat from Cornwall had a gene called Gene I and the DevonRex had Gene II.

With a now limited gene pool, out-breeding was inevitable. Thisresulted in the cat being less Oriental in type.

In 1965 a cat wasintroduced from Canadian stock to re-introduce the slender type.The cat breed finally received Championship Status at the GCCF in 1967.

PendennisCastle, the son of Kallibunker and Lamorna Cove, the daughter of Poldhuwere imported to California, US in 1957.

Francis Blanchen, the breeder,certainly got her monies worth - Lamorna Cove was impregnated by herfather before her departure from the United Kingdom and gave birth to 4beautiful kittens when she arrived in the US.

This signified the birthof the Cornish Rex in the US.

Unable to import any additional cats from the United Kingdom, due to adepleted breeding stock, Ms Blanchen had no other choice but tooutcross her rexed cats to the American Shorthair cat,Havana Brown, Siamese and Burmese cats.

This also signified the movefrom the British breed standard and the development of the Americanbreed standard.

Interestingly, a rexed cat, with the same mutation found in theCornish was discovered in a Californian animal shelter in the 1960"s.This little kitty was saved and brought into the breeding program.

The Cornish became very popular in the US and by 1964, the breed achieved full Championship status.