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About Norwegian
Forest Cats |
History
No one really knows how long the Norwegian
Forest Cat has been around, but if you ask any Norwegian he will say
forever. This beautiful cat was first introduced to the public in
1938 at a cat show in Oslo, Norway. This event can not be considered
the beginning history of the breed. Norse mythology speaks of a cat
so huge the even the god Thor could not lift it from the ground In
another story the goddess of Love and Fertility, Freya, had a
chariot pulled by two large white cats. Vikings may have brought
short-haired cats from England and the Crusaders could have brought
in the long-haired cats and this is thought to be the beginnings of
the breed.
Needless to say, the Norwegian Forest Cat
is a big and hearty feline specimen. It is designed to withstand the
cold harsh winters and the damp rainy summers of Scandinavia. They
are truly a 'real cat'.
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"The Norwegian
Forest Cat is one of Mother Nature's finest achievements" |
Description
A Norwegian Forest Cat has a medium length
body and the hind legs are higher than the front legs. It is heavily
boned and very muscular and powerful. The head is triangular
shaped. The profile is straight (the profile must not show a
dip, in case of a dip try to stroke the hairs on the bridge of the
nose because often the profile is straight but the hair implantation
may misrepresent this) and the cat has a strong chin. The
eyes are almond shaped which gives them their sweet and intelligent
expression. The eyes can be any colour, but the most common colour
is green/gold. They have medium to large ears set on the head so
that they follow the line of the triangle from the outer base of the
ears down to the chin. Ears are well-tufted and lynx-like tip tufts
are desirable. The tail is long and flowing. The Norwegian Forest
Cat comes in all colours and patterns except colour points.
The Norwegian Forest cat is considered a
semi-longhair. It has a double coat which consists of a rich woolly
undercoat covered in long guard hairs. It is very water repellent,
warm, and requires little moderate grooming. They do not mat
easily. The body coat is long. The britches are full. The ruff is
short on the back of the neck and shoulders with side mutton chops
and a full frontal bib. Norwegian Forest Cats do shed and in the
summer they lose so much of their coat that they resemble a
short-haired cats except for their bushy tails. General grooming is
probably only required once or twice a week, but many new owners
find that daily grooming of their new kittens is a good way of
building up a special relationship with their new arrival, and
indeed, it is very rewarding to hear the contented purr of a happy
cat. Grooming is also a good way of keeping touch with your cats
condition and any changes can then be picked up very quickly.
Males average 12 to 15 pounds (5,5 to
7 kilos) in
weight. The females are proportionately smaller. The male is not
considered mature until the age of 5 years and the female is at
approximately 3 years of age.
These large friendly cats have people loving personalities
(a very outgoing personality, lovely temper, playful, calm). They
enjoy challenges and adapt to surroundings easily.
It
is a cat that loves to be both indoor and outdoor. Their robust
constitution makes for a long, healthy life. Norwegian Forest Cats
make ideal family cats, they are happy to get on with children and
animals alike. But beware, they will probably want to be number one,
and somehow the rest of the household usually lets them. No matter
how happy they are with other animals, they do especially love their
human friends. They may even follow you from room to room.
The breeding program
The first Forest Cat breed club, Norsk Skogkattring, was established
in Norway in 1975. It was founded by Karl Eggum, Liv Loose, and Egil
Nylund. The last one, along with his wife Else Nylund, bred Pan's Truls, the magnificent male cat who served as model for FIFe's
Forest Cat standard. This group formalized a breeding program begun
in the 1930's to preserve the native cat and select the best
subjects for reproduction. Their work had to be discontinued during
the Second World War, but recommenced in the ‘50's. In 1977 their
efforts were crowned with FIFe's acceptance of the breed for
championship status, an event commemorated with a special postage
stamp in Norway.
The Forest Cat exists in a wide variety of colours, from solid black
to solid white, taking in blues, silvers and smokes, reds and
tortoiseshells, and the various tabby patterns. All are found with
or without white markings, such as white paws, a white blaze on the
face, or a medallion on the chest. Chocolate, lilac, fawn, and
cinnamon, along with the point motif typical of Siamese, are an
exception, as these colours are not felt to be natural to the Forest
Cat. They are not permitted in the FIFé standard.
Pan's Polaris
EP & EC Pan's Polaris, DM (*1984
† March 25, 2000) can be found on many pedigrees
and was one of the very early NFO's. He was neutered on the age of 12
and he died at the age of almost 16 years. His father is EP & GIC Niro's Dunder and his mother is Pussi and he is the father of many
European Champions. His fortunate owner was also Else Nylund.
Polaris is well-known because of his huge white tail tip. Therefore
nowadays NFO-lovers call a white tail tip a Polaris-point. It can
only be called a Polaris-point when the white tail tip is big
enough. Still a lot of people make the mistake to call any amount of
white on the tail tip a Polaris-point, and call that an inheritance
of the famous Pan's Polaris, but that's wrong! Only a tail tip as
huge as the one from Polaris himself can be called that way. Note:
the rest of the cat can be any colour it doesn't have to be black.
How do you know you have a Norwegian Forest
Cat?
"What a strange question", some people will say. But already in the
few years we are breeding this question seem to appear in a lot of
people's mind. We see it on the Internet but also in our received
e-mails and telephone calls.
Basically, if you don't have the registration papers from the
breeder, you cannot call it a Norwegian Forest Cat. There is only a
very small chance that your cat is a real NFO that somehow got lost
and found a home with you...
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© Bianca
Overboom-Elshoff, Norwegian Forest Cats av Verden ~ or
other persons when mentioned ~ on all pictures and text.
Copying without permission is therefore prohibited
Disclaimer |
