| Australian Mist | |
|---|---|
 A Blue Spotted Australian Mist female | |
| Other names | Spotted Mist |
| Origin | Australia |
| Breed standards | |
| TICA | standard |
| GCCF | standard |
| Other | WNCA |
| Domestic cat (Felis catus) | |
The Australian Mist (formerly known as Spotted Mist) is a breed of cat developed in Australia. It is a cross between the Abyssinian cat, the Burmese cat, and the Australian Tabby cat. [1] [2] The Australian Mist has a distinct and unique coat pattern hence the name.
This breed was developed in Australia in 1977 by Dr. Truda Straede with a gene-pool of approximately 30 foundation cats. [3] Dr. Straede submitted a plan to the Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales Cat Club (RASCC) for a breed with blue, brown, chocolate, and lilac colourings by using Burmese; and for a spotted tabby pattern by using the ticking gene of Abyssinian to go with a spotted tabby coat. The first generation of the breed was accepted into the RASCC experimental category in May 1980 and in April of 1986 the fourth generation was accepted as the 'Spotted Mist'. In June 1997 the marbled variety of the breed was accepted by the RASCC and Waratah State Cat Alliance. Due to the newly accepted marbled variety it was decided by the Co-ordinating Cat Council of Australia and the Australian Cat Fancy to rename the breed — in a unanimous decision the name 'Australian Mist' was chosen. [2] [4]
On 1 January 1999 the breed received championship status with the New Zealand Cat Fancy. The breed was accepted for championship status by the World Cat Federation in August 2004. [5] The first Australian Mists were imported into the United Kingdom in 2007. The breed was given preliminary recognition by the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy in October 2011. [3] It was accepted at championship status in The International Cat Association on 1 May 2014. [6] It gained championship status with the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy in February 2017. [7] The breed is not yet recognised by the Fédération Internationale Féline.
The Australian Mist is a medium-sized short-haired cat, with a round and medium-sized head, a broad nose, and large green eyes. Eye colour can range from chartreuse to aquamarine. [3] Ears are moderately large with a rounded tip to them. The coat is short to medium in length and feels smooth and silky.
The coat pattern has three aspects: the ground colour, which is paler than the pattern; the pattern; and the appearance of wearing a misted veil, caused by random ticking in solid colour areas. The legs and tail are ringed or barred, and the face and neck also have lines of colour.[ citation needed ]
There are two types of coat patterns in the Australian Mist: the original spotted coat which has distinctive spots that are symmetrical and the marbled coat which has swirled patches and streaks on the coat. Both varieties should have the tabby M-shaped marking on the forehead and a ringed tail with a dark tip. [8]
Australian Mists have a paler coat on the under-parts of the body which give it the distinctive mist appearance. Colour may not fully develop until the adult is at least two years old. Australian Mists do not have a solid colour as the agouti ground gives them their distinctive look but the base colours in the cat include blue, brown, caramel, chocolate, cinnamon (gold), fawn (peach), and lilac. [8]
Due to the novel status of the breed outside Australia most Australian Mist catteries are located in Australia; however, there are a few in the UK and USA. Breeding cats have also been sent to Norway. [9] [10]
Conditions commonly screened for in breeding Australian Mist cats include pyruvate kinase deficiency, feline hypokalaemic polymyopathy, neonatal isoerythrolysis, and progressive retinal atrophy. [3]
The British Shorthair is the pedigreed version of the traditional British domestic cat, with a distinctively stocky body, thick coat, and broad face. The most familiar colour variant is the "British Blue", with a solid grey-blue coat, pineapple eyes, and a medium-sized tail. The breed has also been developed in a wide range of other colours and patterns, including tabby and colourpoint.
The Bengal cat is a breed of hybrid cat created from crossing of an Asian leopard cat with domestic cats, especially the spotted Egyptian Mau. It is then usually bred with a breed that demonstrates a friendlier personality, because after breeding a domesticated cat with a wildcat, its friendly personality may not manifest in the kitten. The breed's name derives from the leopard cat's taxonomic name.
The Turkish Van is a semi-long-haired, standardised breed of domestic cat, which was developed in the United Kingdom from a selection of cats obtained from various cities of modern Turkey, especially southeast Turkey. The breed is rare, is one of the larger breeds, and is distinguished by the Van pattern, where the colour is restricted to the head and the tail, and the rest of the cat is white; this is due to the expression of the piebald white spotting gene, a type of partial leucism. A Turkish Van may have blue or amber eyes, or be odd-eyed.
The Munchkin is a breed of cat characterized by its very short legs, which are caused by genetic mutation. Compared to many other cat breeds, it is a relatively new breed, documented since 1940s and officially recognized in 1991. The Munchkin is considered to be the original breed of dwarf cat.
The Ocicat is an all-domestic breed of cat which resembles a wild cat but has no recent wild DNA in its gene pool. It is named for its resemblance to the ocelot. The breed was established from the Siamese and Abyssinian and later on American Shorthair would be added.
The Burmese cat is a breed of domestic cat, originating in Burma, believed to have its roots near the Thai-Burma border and developed in the United States and Britain.
The Egyptian Mau is a small to medium-sized short-haired cat breed. They are one of the few naturally spotted breeds of domesticated cat. The spots of the Mau occur on only the tips of the hairs of its coat. It is considered a rare breed.
The Havana Brown was the result of a planned breeding between Siamese and domestic black cats, by a group of cat fanciers in England, in the 1950s. Early breeders introduced a Siamese type Russian Blue into their breeding. However, using current genetic testing, it is believed that almost none remain in the gene pool.
Tonkinese is a domestic cat breed produced by crossbreeding between the Siamese and Burmese. Members of the breed are distinguished by a pointed coat pattern in a variety of colors. In addition to the modified coat colors of the "mink" pattern, which is a dilution of the point color, the breed is now being shown in the foundation-like Siamese and Burmese colors: pointed with white and solid overall (sepia).
The Oriental Shorthair is a breed of domestic cat that is developed from and closely related to the Siamese cat. It maintains the modern Siamese head and body type but appears in a wide range of coat colors and patterns. Like the Siamese, Orientals have almond-shaped eyes, a triangular head shape, large ears, and an elongated, slender, and muscular body. Their personalities are also very similar. Orientals are social, intelligent, and many are rather vocal. They often remain playful into adulthood, with many enjoying playing fetch. Despite their slender appearance, they are athletic and can leap into high places. They prefer to live in pairs or groups and also seek human interaction. Unlike the breed's blue-eyed forebear, Orientals are usually green-eyed. The Oriental Longhair differs only with respect to coat length.
The Siberian is a centuries-old landrace of domestic cat in Russia, and recently developed as a formal breed with standards promulgated the world over since the late-1980s. Since 2006, the breed is recognized for registry and championship status with all major cat registries.
The Burmilla is a breed of domestic cat, that originated in the United Kingdom in 1981. It is a cross between the Chinchilla Persian and Burmese cats. In certain cat registries the breed falls under the Asian group, and is sometimes referred to as the Asian Shaded. Standards were produced in 1984, and the breed gained championship status in the United Kingdom in the 1990s.
The Chantilly-Tiffany or Chantilly/Tiffany, also known as the Chantilly or the Foreign Longhair, was a breed of domestic cat which originated in the late-1960s in North America. The Chantilly breed never got off the ground and has always been rare. It was near-extinction in the late-1980s and again in the late-2000s. Since 2015 the breed has been considered extinct with the passing and neutering of the last two cats of the Chantilly lineage, and with no intact Chantilly cats the inevitable resulting discontinuation of the breeding program.
A cat registry or cat breed registry, also known as a cat fancier organization, cattery federation, or cat breeders' association, is an organization that registers domestic cats of many breeds, for exhibition and for breeding lineage tracking purposes. A cat registry stores the pedigrees (genealogies) of cats, cattery names, and other details of cats; studbooks, breed descriptions, and the formal breed standards ; lists of judges qualified to judge at shows run by or affiliated with that registry, and sometimes other information. A cat registry is not the same as a breed club or breed society. Cat registries each have their own rules and usually also organize or license (sanction) cat shows. The show procedures vary widely, and awards won in one registry are not normally recognized by another. Some registries only serve breeders, while others are oriented toward pet owners and provide individual as well as cattery memberships, while yet others are federations only deal with breed clubs or even other registries as intermediaries between the organization and breeders.
The Asian or Asian group, is a cat breed similar to the European Burmese but in a range of different coat colours and patterns. Long-haired Asians of all varieties are called Tiffanies. Asians are grouped in section 5 (Burmese) by the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF).
An Oriental bicolour is any cat of Oriental type, either long-haired or short-haired and in any pattern including colourpoint, which has white areas on its coat caused by the white spotting gene. In most cat fancier and breeder organisations, Oriental bicolours do not constitute a standardised breed, but a coat pattern variant of the breed of their foundation stock. One breed registry is an exception, the UK-based Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF), which has defined them as a separate breed named Oriental Bicolour (capitalised).
The Abyssinian is a breed of cat with a distinctive "ticked" tabby coat, in which individual hairs are banded with different colours. They are also known simply as Abys.
The Persian cat, also known as the Persian Longhair, is a long-haired breed of cat characterised by a round face and short muzzle. The first documented ancestors of Persian cats might have been imported into Italy from Khorasan as early as around 1620, however, this has not been proven. Instead, there is stronger evidence for a longhaired cat breed being exported from Afghanistan and Iran from the 19th century onwards. Persian cats have been widely recognised by the North-West European cat fancy since the 19th century, and after World War II by breeders from North America, Australia and New Zealand. Some cat fancier organisations' breed standards subsume the Himalayan and Exotic Shorthair as variants of this breed, while others generally treat them as separate breeds.
