Abyssinian

The Abyssinian is a slender, short-haired domestic cat breed developed in the United Kingdom in the late nineteenth century.

Early stories tied the breed to a cat named Zula, said to have come home with British soldiers from Abyssinia in 1868, and to the cats painted in Egyptian tombs. Genetic research later pointed instead to the coast of the Indian Ocean and parts of Southeast Asia as the likely home of its ancestors. British breeders fixed the ticked coat and showed early examples at the Crystal Palace in London. The Governing Council of the Cat Fancy recognised the breed in 1929, and The International Cat Association has accepted it since its founding in 1979.

The Abyssinian is a medium-sized cat of foreign type, lithe and muscular, with long slender legs, a softly wedge-shaped head and large, alert ears. Females weigh about 3-4 kg (6-9 lb) and males 3.5-5.5 kg (7-12 lb). Its short, fine coat is ticked: each hair carries several bands of darker and lighter colour. The registries accept ruddy, cinnamon (sorrel), blue and fawn, as well as silver versions of these colours. The standards describe a curious, playful and people-oriented cat that likes to climb high and stays busy for most of the day.

The coat needs little care beyond a weekly comb to remove dead hair, together with regular nail trims and tooth cleaning. Abyssinians keep their energy into old age and need climbing space, cat trees and toys that let them hunt and forage. Known inherited conditions include progressive retinal atrophy, familial renal amyloidosis, patellar luxation and pyruvate kinase deficiency, a red blood cell defect that causes anaemia.