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Exotic Shorthair In the Beginning
About 30 something years ago the appearance of some domestic shorthair cats underwent noticeable change. You could notice it about the eyes, which grew larger and rounder; about the coat, which grew softer and a tad plush; and about the muzzle, which grew short, shorter, and rounder. This evolution occurred through the furtive use of Persians in domestic shorthair breeding programs; and since vice, like virtue, is its own reward, the new-and-improved domestics did well in the show ring.
Though many breeders and judges preferred to look the other way than to look askance at the clay feats of some domestics, Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) judge Jane Martinke suggested that CFA create a new breed called the exotic shorthair to accommodate these hybrids. The exotic would consist of crosses between Persians and any shorthaired cats, and would be judged on the same standard as the Persian except for coat length. On May 1, 1967, CFA became the first association to grant championship status to exotic shorthairs, which are now accepted in all associations in North America.
About the same time the domestic shorthair had begun to evolve along nondomestic lines, a Washington state Persian breeder named Carolyn Bussey--who "was not aware at first of what CFA was doing with Exotics"--crossed a Persian female with a Burmese male in hopes of producing chocolate longhairs. "When the litter arrived and I saw those cute, little teddy bears," she recalls, "I said, 'Forget the chocolate longhairs.' I decided to produce shorthaired Persians instead."
Bussey was inspired by the velvet-truck cuteness of the Persian-Burmese cross. Other breeders were inspired by the chance to make honest cats of their bogus domestic shorthairs. Still others, not wishing to risk bursitis and emphysema from the frequent grooming that Persians require, found the wash-and-wear exotic an appealing option.
Whatever their incentive, exotic breeders had their work--if not their type--cut out for them. None of the ten shorthaired breeds available as outcrosses in the late 1960s looked anything like Persians. Therefore, exotic fanciers used domestic shorthairs (or Burmese or Russian blues) just often enough to introduce the shorthair gene into their stock. After that (in order to give themselves more breathing room and their cats less) they bred exotics primarily to Persians because the shorthair influence, though remote, is difficult to remove.
"You can breed exotic to exotic for a generation or two," says one breeder of top-winning exotics, "but you have to keep going back to Persians or you'll lose type and coat length."
Their Persian relatives almost guarantee that not every exotic is born with short hair. When you breed a Persian to an exotic--unless the exotic is not carrying the recessive longhair gene--only half the kittens, on the average, will be shorthairs. In fact, it's possible to get longhaired kittens from two exotics; and because longhaired exotics cannot be shown in every cat association, the most frustrating experience in the life of an exotic breeder is watching the face on a young kitten grow short while its coat grows long.
Some people claim they can tell as soon as kittens are born whether they will have long hair or not. Ironically, these breeders say that the kittens with the woolliest coats at birth are the ones that will turn out to be shorthairs. Breeders who are not so gifted, usually have to wait three or four weeks before they can tell for certain what they have.
It Looks Like ...
Sometimes referred to as a Persian in its pajamas, the exotic shorthair is more like a tugboat in a velour body stocking. The exotic has a broad, massive, carved-out-of-stone head with round underlying bone structure and great breadth of skull. Its cheeks are full, its jaws broad and tweakable, its chin firm and well-developed. Large, round, full, wide-set eyes and a short, snub, broad nose--"almost as broad as (it is) long," says The International Cat Association (TICA) standard--combine to produce the exotic's Campbell-soup-kid expression. A nose break, a "decided" one, according to the American Cat Association (ACA) and the American Cat Fanciers Association (ACFA), is required. In fact, the cat's "forehead, nose, and chin should be in a straight line (TICA)."
The exotic shorthair has small, round-tipped, ears that are not unduly open at the base. Set far apart and tilted forward, the ears should ride low on the head without distorting its rounded contour.
This glorious head is connected by a short, thick, linebackers's neck to a medium-to-large body that has resounding depth across shoulders and chest, a level back, a hind end like a Quarter Horse, and a tail "about as long as the distance between the neck and the tail root (ACA, ACFA)." The tail should be "carried without a curve at an angle lower than the back (CFA)." The exotic's coat--short by some standards, medium by others--is dense, plush, soft in texture, and full of life.
Personality
"Exotics are as docile as Persians, but a little more active," says one exotic breeder. "I think the American Shorthair in their pedigrees adds something to their temperament."
Make that two things: a vertical leap greater than three inches and a curiosity that borders on mischievousness. Exotics are more likely to jumping on furniture and countertops than Persians are, often getting onto places Persians would never think about exploring. Nevertheless, say exotic breeders, their cats are "just as sweet as Persians. Sometimes even sweeter. Their personalities are wonderful."
These qualities everyone can appreciate. The exotic's near- maintenance-free coat is especially dear to those who breed them. Exotics have been called "a lazy person's Persian," and for good reason. Given their druthers, most exhibitors would rather wash four drip-dry exotics than one Persian.