CATS ON SATURDAY

The PIXIE-BOB is a breed of domestic cat claimed by breed founder Carol Ann Brewer of Washington State to be the progeny of naturally occurring bobcat hybrids.  DNA testings have failed to detect bobcat marker genes and pixie-bobs are considered wholly domestic for the purposes of ownership, cat fancy registration, import and export.

In the spring of 1985, Carol Ann Brewer purchased a polydactyl cat near Mount Baker, Washington, in the Cascade Mountains.  This male had a short bobbed tail.  In January, 1986 she rescued another male cat.  This cat was very large, had a bobbed tail and was reported to have been sired by a bobcat.  While this cat was starving it still weighed 17 lbs. and was so tall it reached up to Brewer's knees.  Shortly after she had acquired this large male, it mated with a brown spotted female cat next door.  In April, 1986 a litter was born from this mating.  Brewer eventually kept one of the kittens named "Pixie", and after a year started a breeding programme with Pixie as the foundation cat.  Over the next couple of years, Brewer introduced into her programme 23 cats from around the Cascade range that were believed by her to be born from naturally occurring matings between bobcats and domestic cats.  She coined the term "Legend Cat" to refer to such cats and has since registered a trademark in the U.S. to limit the term to describe permitted outcrosses used in her breeding programme.  At the same time, other breeders in the U.S. were working with distinctly wild looking barn cats and collaborated with Brewer to establish a broad genetic base and to develop the foundation of tday's pixie-bob.

Led by Brewer, they succeeded in registering their new breed with The International Cat Association (TICA) and eventually the American Cat Fancier's Association (ACFA).  The pixie-bob was accepted into the "Exhibition" category by TICA in 1993, promoted to "New Breed and Colour" status in 1996 and eventually gained Championship status in 1998.  The pixie-bob was classified by TICA initially as a "Native New Breed", defined as "A new breed which has been identified through selection of phenotypically similar individuals from a naturally occurring population indigenous to a particular geographic region" but it is now classified as a "New Natural/Regional Breed" also known as NNRB.

Pixie-bobs are a fully domestic breed of cat bred to resemble the North American Bobcat.  For a cat to be considered a Certified TICA pixie-bob cat, one of their parents must be traced back to StoneIsland Pixie, the original inspiration for the breed.

These cats an be large but on average reach around 5kg (11 lbs), similar to good sized domestic cats, with only a very few breeders producing consistently large cats.  Males are usually larger than females.  The average domestic cat weighs about 8 lbs or 4 kg.  Pixie-bobs grow for 4 years instead of 1 year like most domestic cats.

 Most pixie-bobs have black fur and skin on the bottom of their paws, tipped ears, heavy ear hair, black lips and white fur around the eyes but with black eye skin.  Their chins have white fur, but often have black skin under the white fur.  Some of their whiskers change from black (root - about 25%) to white (to the tip - about 75% of the whisker) Bobtail-like fur pattern, but often have reddish tones mixed in.  Most are short-haired but some are long-haired.  The brow should be heavy and the eyes should have a triangular shape.  Eyes are blue when kittens, then change to green or fold when several months old.  Tails can be non-existent (rumpy), or 2-4 inches (desired - TICA required), or long tails (Pixie was a long-tail).  The head is pear-shaped and the head is considered to be the most important characteristic.

It is not presently known what genetic similarity there may or may not be between the pixie-bob and other breeds with suppression of the tail, such as Manx, American Bobtail and Japanese Bobtail.

Thanks to Wikipedia who says some verification may be required about this breed.  It is a cat that quit appeals to me but then most cats do.