Other Name
No matter what your eyes may tell you, the Munchkin is not a cross between a Dachshund and a cat. The dwarfed appearance of the low-riding feline is the result of a spontaneous natural mutation. Energetic and playful, the Munchkin might be short on height, but he’s long on fun. The Munchkin cat is a medium-sized cat with a long body, walnut-shaped eyes and triangular ears. Because of a mutation it has short and stubby legs; this is also the cat's most recognizable feature. The Munchkin, however, is in no way handicapped by its legs and does have regularly-sized forelegs that are equal in length. The cat comes in short-haired and long-haired varieties, both sporting an all-weather coat.
The Munchkin is a cat breed that sprang from a natural genetic mutation. Reports of short-legged cats have appeared throughout history, including in 1944 in Britain, in 1956 in Russia, in 1970 in New England, and in the 1980s in Louisiana. A cat named Blackberry, who was found as a stray in 1983, was the mother of the Munchkin breed. She and one of her male kittens, Toulouse, were outcrossed to domestic cats. Outcrosses to domestic shorthairs and longhairs are still permitted to ensure a diverse gene pool. Starting in 1994, The International Cat Association’s new breed development program, which has a genetics committee to monitor breeding data, began to oversee the Munchkin’s development. The Munchkin’s short legs turned out to have a dominant inheritance pattern, similar to Corgis and Dachshunds. The breed achieved full recognition by The International Cat Association in 2003. The Cat Fanciers Association does not recognize the Munchkin.
