Local Cat Breed and Still Some Foreign Breed Help

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Date: 12/28/04 8:14 PM

Hello Norman:
     I hope you had a nice holiday. I'm still doing researchon cat breeds and I apprecaite your help. Do you know:
What breeds of cat were kept as pets or employed in the Old West? What breeds do Westerners, cowboys, Southerners, Cajuns and Creoles keep as pets or employ?
I know you were trying to help me find out what breeds are found in the West INdies, but do you know aht breeds are found in the Caribeen? DO you have any information about any West Indain or Caribbean catteries, or cat breeders? If not, who should I contact?
I still want to find out if Abyssinians and Somalis are found in Jamaica, the West Indies and the Caribbean, so I contacted a few Abyssainian/Somail catteries and breeders.
I tried contacting the Feline Rescue Network, but I kept getting an error message when I tried to e-mail them.
Please let me know. Happy Holidays!

Sincerely,
Jason Goldman
JGoldman10@yahoo.com
Answer -
Jason,

I struck out in my inquiry on the International Cat Judges list.  This leads me to suspect that there is no formal cat fancy in the Carribean per se.  I would guess that anyone with any specific breed of cat bought it somewhere else and brought it to their island home.

As to the USA, virtually all cat breeds are found everywhere, these days.  Virtually all cat breeds in the USA originated in the early 20th century, so cowboys and other occupations of the 19th century would not have known about today's breeds.

In The Cat Fanciers' Association, inc. (CFA), there were 7 original breeds when it first started up in 1905:  The Abyssinian, the Domestic Shorthair (a.k.a. American Shorthair), the Siamese, the Russian Blue, the Manx, the Persian, and the Angora (not necessarily the same as today's Turkish Angora).  The Angora was absorbed into the Persian breed.  

In Europe, we know the Chartreaux was very early (late 17th century?) and the Birman was in the early 20th century.

Most people in the 20th century did not use pedigreed cats as working cats.  Most of the cats found on farms and ranches and homesteads were barn cats from the feral population.

I hope this helps a little bit.

Best regards... Norm.

Date: 12/31/04 7:57 PM

Hello:
I remember form one of your old notices that you said Abyssainians are found just about everywhere. Who should I contact, for a conformation? Should I conact Abyssianian breeders in the UK to find out if they're imported to countries outside the UK?
Are Chinese Harlequins found in China? Do you have any information about the two new Chinese Breeds-the Dragon Li and the Chinese Crested?
If feral cats were around in the Old West-where did they come from?
What breeds do cowboys, westerners, southerners, and Cajuns today keep as pets? The Munchkin  is considered the Louisiana Creole cat.  
What other cat experts here at Allexperts.com could help me out with this information. Anyone else besides the person at Messybeast.com I should ask?
How do I therse questions posted at the message boards here at Allexperts.com?

Please let me know. Thank you again for your help.      

Sincerely,
Jason Goldman
JGoldman10@yahoo.com
Answer -
Jason,

Yes I had a nice holiday thank you.

You can sign up for a yahoo groups email list called:  Abys-List.  This can be done by sending an email to:

 abys-list-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Most cat breeds have similar lists.  You can then ask the list subscribers many of your questions on their breeds.  Check out:  www.groups.yahoo.com

As to the Chinese Crested, I could only find reference to the Dog breed.  I have yet to find a reference to Dargon-Li, but I have not given up.

BTW, the most popluar breeds in China appear to be Persians and Exotics.  Yes, there are Siamese in China.

About 2-5% of all pets are from the domestic population are are not pedigreed cat breeds.  So the vast majority of Americans have everday cats for pets, which would include cowboys, southerners, cajuns, etc.  In the USA availability of breeds is country wide. so there is no real regional favorite that I have seen.

As to how feral cats populated the USA, the first ones might have been longhaired cats that were ships cats when the vikings came over to the new World.  It is certain that some cats jumped ship when the European explorers and traders came to the new world. Certainly cats have jumped ship in all of the USA seaports (for ocean going vessels) and migrated to the heartlands from the east, west and gulf coasts.

I hope this has answered some of your questions.

As to other experts on the Allexpert board, you will have to go to the Allexpert.com web site to find out more.

I hope your holiday was also nice.

Best regards... Norm.

Date: 1/7/05 1:30 Am

Hello Norman:

I had a nice holiday. I still haven't given up in my quest to find out about cat breeds in the West Inidies and the Caribbean. Did you find any sources that could provide the answers to this question? I don't remember what you said in some of the other posts, but did you say that Bobtails were found all over Asia, and did you say that the Chinese Harlequin can be found in China? I contacted one of the dog experts here at AllExperts, she said she's sure that all the familiar cat breeds are kept as pets in the Caribbean and the West Indies-should I go by that? Do you know of any cat clubs in these areas I can contact?
Do you know what breeds of cats were and are kept as pats and/or employed by all branches of the military? Please let me know. Thank you-and happy new year.

Sincerely,
Jason Goldman
JGoldman10@yahoo.com


Answer
Jason,

One piece of unfinished business on this one is that Chinese Crested comes back to me as a dog breed in every inquiry. I have not heard of this as a cat breed anywhere!

I believe I have answered all other parts of this query I could, elsewhere.

Best regards... Norm.