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The Somali is a long-haired Abyssinian. The
breed appeared spontaneously in the 1950s from Abyssinian breeding programs
when a number of Abyssinian kittens were born with bottle-brush tails and
long fluffy coats. Abyssinians and Somalis share the same personality
(active, intelligent, playful, curious) and appearance. The only difference
between them is the fur length and therefore the amount of grooming
required. Unlike most long-haired cats, Somalis shed very little excess
hair. Their coat is generally shed en masse, or "blown", once or twice a
year, rather than constantly shedding like a Persian or other long-haired
cat.
Somalis have a striking, bushy tail, which, combined with their ruddy coat,
has earned them the nickname of "fox cats" in some circles. In addition to
the fluffy tail, the Somali breed features a black stripe down its back,
large ears, a full ruff and breeches, contributing further to the overall
"foxy" look. Their coats are ticked, which is a variation on tabby markings,
and some Somalis may show full tabby stripes on portions of their bodies,
but this is seen as a flaw, and tabby Somalis are only sold as neutered
pets. The only tabby marking on a show Somali is the traditional tabby 'M'
on the middle of the forehead. Like Abyssinians, they have a dark rim around
their eyes that makes them look like they are wearing kohl, and they have a
small amount of white on their muzzles and chins/throats. White elsewhere on
their bodies disqualifies them from show-status.
As stated above, the first Somalis were
longhairs that appeared in litters of Abyssinian kittens. In the 1940s, a
British breeder named Janet Robertson exported some normal Abyssinian
kittens to Australia, New Zealand, and North America. Descendants of these
cats occasionally produced kittens with long or fuzzy coats, and in 1963,
Mary Mailing, a breeder from Canada, entered one into a local pet show. Ken
McGill, the show's judge, asked for one to breed from. The official first
somali was Mayling Tutsuta, McGill's cat.
An American Abyssinian breeder, Evelyn Mague, also received longhairs from
her cats, which she named Somalis. Don Richings, another Canadian breeder,
used kittens from Ken McGill, and began to work with Evelyn. As of the late
1970s, the Somali was fully accepted in North America, then later in the
1980s they were accepted in Europe. By 1991 the breed was accepted
worldwide.
The essence of the Somali cat is ticking - each
hair is ticked multiple times in two colours. The Usual or Ruddy Somali is
golden brown ticked with black. There are 28 colours of Somali in total
(some organisations accept only some of these colours). All organisations
accept Somalis in usual/ruddy, sorrel/red, blue, and fawn. Most clubs
recognise usual/ruddy silver, sorrel/red silver, blue silver, and fawn
silver. Other colours that may be accepted include chocolate, lilac, red,
cream, usual-tortie, sorrel-tortie, blue-tortie, fawn-tortie, chocolate-tortie,
lilac-tortie, and silver variants of all the above colours.
The Somali breed along with its parent breed
the Abyssinian have been found to suffer from Pyruvate kinase deficiency (PKDef),
with around 5% of the breed carrying the defective gene. There is now a
genetic test to identify this recessive disorder within the breed, and as
such all breeding stock should be tested to ensure no more affected kittens
need be produced.
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