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Balinese Cat
The Balinese Cat is a breed
of oriental
cat
with long hair and Siamese-style markings, or points.
They resemble a Siamese
with a medium-length silky coat and a plumed tail, but not nearly as fluffy
as a Himalayan, and
they require much less grooming.
Balinese are extremely intelligent cats,
although less talkative than their Siamese ancestors.
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Balinese
Lilac Point Cat
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The Balinese cat was originally registered as a
'longhaired Siamese', and examples were known from the early 1920s.
The
occasional long-haired kittens in a Siamese litter were seen as an oddity,
and sold as household pets rather than as show cats.
This changed in the
mid-1950s, when two breeders, Mrs. Marion Dorsey of Rai-Mar Cattery in
California and Mrs. Helen Smith of MerryMews Cattery in New York, decided
that they would commence a breeding program for the longhaired cats.
Helen
Smith named the cats 'Balinese' because she felt they showed the grace and
beauty of Balinese dancers, and because 'longhaired Siamese' seemed a rather
clunky name for such graceful felines.
The breed became quite popular after
this, and a number of breeders began working on 'perfecting' the Balinese
appearance.
This led eventually to the development of two entirely separate
'strands' of Balinese cat - some owners prefer a traditional or
'apple-headed' Balinese, while breeders and judges tend to prefer a more
contemporary appearance.
Like the Siamese, there are now two
different varieties of Balinese cat being bred and shown - 'traditional'
Balinese and 'contemporary' Balinese.
The traditional Balinese cat has a
coat approximately two inches long over its entire body and it is a sturdy
and robust cat with a semi-rounded muzzle and ears.
The traditional Balinese
cat closely resembles a Ragdoll
cat although they do not share any of the same genes or breeding other than
having a partially Siamese ancestry.
A 'contemporary' Balinese cat has a much
shorter coat and is virtually identical to a standard show Siamese except
for its tail, which is a graceful silky plume.
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