Other Name
Curly-coated cats come along occasionally, the result of a spontaneous genetic mutation. The tolerant and easygoing Selkirk Rex is one such breed, developed from a curly-coated cat found in a shelter in 1987. He takes his name from the nearby Selkirk Mountains. Selkirk Rex is a medium-sized cat with a broad and round head. Its curly hair covers the cat's entire body, but is usually more pronounced in the neck and tail. The curly hair, however, appears at birth, straightens naturally and then reappears when the cat is between eight and ten months old. This plush and silky coat will then mature when the cat turns two. This breed also has long or short-haired cats, unlike the other Rex cats.
Many cat breeds are the result of a spontaneous genetic mutation that was nurtured by someone who happened to notice it, and that is the case with the Selkirk. It all started with a feral cat in Montana who gave birth in 1987 to a litter of five kittens, one of which had an unusual curly coat. Persian breeder Jeri Newman acquired the kitten, thinking that she might carry a rex gene. It was, in fact, a new rex gene, one that was dominant for a curly coat, unlike that for the Devon and Cornish Rex cats. Newman named the kitten Miss DePesto because of her frequent demands for attention and bred her to a black Persian male. Out of the resulting litter, three of the kittens had curly coats. The International Cat Association took the Selkirk into its new breed development program in 1990 and gave it full recognition in 1994. The Selkirk is also recognized by the Cat Fanciers Association and other cat registries.
