Breeds of cats: American Curl

The American Curl is a young breed. The ancestor of all existing curls at the moment is black cat named Sulamith, picked up by farmers Joe and Grace Ruga fromSouthern California in July 1981. The cat had strange ears bent backwards. Already six months later she was born kittens - apparently ordinary. But already on the fourth day, some kittens began to wrap their ears back as well as their mothers.

The kittens began breeding work, and inIn 1983, a representative of the CFA (Association of Cat Lovers) confirmed that ears bent back, stably transferred from Sulamith and her descendants, are a unique trait. From that moment they decided to continue the selection of cats (but at a more serious level) and to separate them into a separate registered breed, which later was called american curl (curl in translation from English - a curl).

Since the breed of the American Curl is still young enough, while breeding, in addition to mating of purebred breeds, mating with mongrel cats, corresponding to the standard (of course, with the exception of the ears) - this allows the genetic diversity of the fund to be made and the quality of offspring maintained.

Usually when knitting two American Curlalmost all kittens are born with swirling ears. If one of the parents has ordinary ears, then half the litter or even more may be twisted. Usually all kittens are born with ordinary ears, they begin to bend in 2-10 days, and the final form can take up to four months.

By the way, angle of curl is of great importance for future destinykitten. An American curl with a strong curl angle may well become a participant in an international exhibition, with an average one - will have the opportunity to participate in breeding, and a curl with slightly curled ears will have to be content with the role of a pet. But the main difficulty is that it is almost impossible to predict the angle of the curl - it does not depend on the external data of the parents.

The breed standard makes certainrequirements for the appearance of American Curl cats, and, of course, these requirements primarily concern unusual ears. The ear should have a wide and open base of hard cartilage, smooth edges and a flexible rounded tip. The bending back should be smooth, and the angle of the turn is minimum 90 and maximum 180 degrees (the optimal value is 135 degrees). The arc of the curl should be visible when viewed in the face and profile. Inside the ear there is a "halo" of hair.

Curls have an average size and a proportional physique. They have beautiful soft and silky coat, the length of which depends on the variety(short-haired or semi-long-haired, the second variety is more common). The American Curl can have any color and eye color, a correspondence between color and eye color is mandatory only for color-points, which should have blue eyes.

The American curl is perfect for home keeping. This playful and friendly cat, and it keeps its playfulness to the veryold age. Curls are quite undemanding, adapt well to new living conditions, quickly become attached to the owner and get on well with children and other pets. These cats are intelligent and accurate, if desired, they can be relatively easily taught to perform certain actions.

The American Curl is quite unpretentious, it has excellent health and does not require specific care. But you need to handle their ears very carefully, so as not to damage the cartilage by accident. Curls are very playful and moving cats, so they need to provide enough free space.

The American curl is very beautiful breed with a wonderful character: gentle, faithful and at the same time - curious and cheerful, she is easy to care for. But so far curls are more common in their homeland, in America than in our latitudes.