![]() ![]() As I understand it, some Thai cat breeders do not consider their cats to be a form of Siamese cat but a new breed. Now the breed is gaining recognition and has been renamed the Thai on the insistence, it seems, of the Modern Siamese cat breeders and recognized by TICA. Until recently cat fanciers couldn’t show Traditional Siamese cats. I conclude that the Modern Siamese has been bred (some would say to a slightly extreme level) for the breeders and cat fanciers (and not for the general market) and the extreme look has been gradually developed over decades in partnership with show judges in interpreting the breed standard, which is open to a fairly wide interpretation. The people who exhibit and compete at cat shows are cat breeders and serious cat lovers (cat fanciers). The people who upload photographs to Flickr are “ordinary” people. The ones in between I call classic Siamese cats or Thai cats. If you search for photographs of Modern Siamese cats on the Flickr website (which has tens of millions of photographs on it and is the biggest photo site on the internet), the search results produce about 90% Traditional Siamese cats and 10% Modern Siamese cats with a small number in between on my reckoning (at 2008). They look a little fragile and have small heads to the untrained eye. To a person who might keep cats but who is not a cat fancier, they might not be the kind of Siamese cat with which you are familiar. If you go to a big cat show such as the GCCF Supreme Cat Show or for example the National Cat Club annual show in London, you will see Modern Siamese cats. The ears are large and the head wedge shaped. It shares this body shape with the Balinese (modern), Oriental Shorthair and Oriental Longhair (these are related cat breeds). The body type is oriental in cat fancy language. The modern Siamese cat is sleek and elegant with slender legs. The US cats are breed to greater extremes than UK modern Siamese cats 3. Selective breeding over about 50 years and evolving breed standards have altered all that. It is almost surprising to recall that the original Siamese cats had naturally kinked tails – now outlawed under breed standards. Of the modern Siamese, Angelica Houston apparently lives with one 3. Other stars who kept Siamese cats (pre- 1960s or so these would have been traditional Siamese cats): Jean Cocteau kept a traditional Siamese cat called Madeleine. ![]() ![]() It is the breed of the stars! People such as Jean Cocteau and Anna Pavlova lived with Siamese cats although then they were not of the modern type. This is one of the most recognised and yet most controversial cat breeds 3. A page (new window) on the pointed auspicious cat (19th century) showing a semi-cobby body type of the original Siamese in Siam.Click here to see visitors’ submissions.Modern Siamese cats photo ©copyright Helmi Flick Essay on Cat Behavior Toggle Child Menu.Wild Cats of Asia (for kids) Toggle Child Menu. ![]()
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