| |
Given
the restrictions of this medium, it is not surprising that
the work of cat breeders frequently constitutes subtle variations
on existing themes – splitting hairs genetically, one
is tempted to say. An efficient manner in which to vary a
theme is to vary the extent of its lines. This technique has
produced several pairs of breeds that are virtually identical
but for the length of their coats. These related pairs include
the Cymric and the Manx, the Somali and the Abyssinian, the
exotic shorthair and the Persian, the Javanese and the colorpoint
shorthair, the Himalayan and the pointed exotic – in
addition to longhair, look-alike versions of the Scottish
fold, the Oriental shorthair and the Siamese.
Fuzzy
Beginnings
The longhair
version of the Siamese is known as the Balinese. At least
one such cat was registered in this country in the Roaring
Twenties, but the breed did not make its first recorded public
appearance until 1961 in the AOV (Any Other Variety) non-championship
class at the Empire Cat Show in New York. For many years before
this debut, longhair kittens had raised their fuzzy little
heads on occasion in litters produced from shorthair Siamese
parents. Most breeders were no more happy to see these longhair
offspring than relatives of the deceased are happy to see
a long-lost nephew turn up for the reading of a wealthy uncle's
will. Consequently, Siamese kittens with black-sheep coats,
one early breeder reported, "were discarded or quietly given
away as undesirables."
One shudders
to think what that writer meant by "discarded," but fortunately
a few Siamese breeders were intrigued by their undesirable
kittens. Two such breeders – Marian Dorsey in Southern
California and Helen Smith in Seaford, New York – decided
to play their cards a little differently and to work for the
establishment of longhair Siamese as an individual breed.
Ruff
Going
The cat
fancy being the sometimes finicky institution that it is,
people who supported longhair Siamese knew that they would
not be able to call their cats by such a straightforward,
descriptive name. Siamese breeders wouldn't hear of it. Therefore,
Smith settled on the name Balinese because the graceful movement
of her cats brought to mind the dancers from the island of
Bali. Such a leap of the imagination may have been possible
when the breed was first developed, but the use of Siamese
outcrosses in Balinese breeding programs has shortened the
Balinese coat considerably since the breed was first accepted
for championship competition by the Cat Fanciers' Federation
in 1963. Ruffs and britches disappeared long ago, and there
isn't much to distinguish a Balinese from a Siamese today
except a wispy fringe on the underbelly and a meek plume of
a tail.
Even with
the change of names from longhair Siamese to Balinese –
an ironic choice in light of the Balinese's red-white-and-blue
origins – the road to acceptance was "a long, tough trail,"
said Sylvia Holland, an early advocate of the Balinese, in
an article written in 1971. The preceding year the Cat Fanciers'
Association had become the last cat registry in North America
to grant championship status to this breed.
If members
of the Siamese nobility were offended by the sound of longhair
attached to their cats, they were even more offended by considerations
of its source. Perhaps Balinese breeders shared this concern,
perhaps they were unfamiliar with basic genetics, perhaps
they were not willing to admit that their cats were hybrids
instead of a naturally occurring breed, or perhaps they simply
feared the frenzy of Siamese breeders, who were even less
able to admit that their breed was not entirely pure. For
whatever reason(s), many Balinese breeders have insisted that
the semilong coats on Balinese are the result of a natural
mutation. There are even some "cat writers" who repeat the
claim that long hair on a Balinese is "an act of God."
It isn't
– unless God has nothing better to do than to repeat
a series of identical "acts" in the same breed in a few of
the same bloodlines within that breed. This faith in the Almighty
notwithstanding, a more logical explanation for the appearance
of long hair in Siamese litters would attribute its presence
to the influence of shaggy-haired ancestors in the Siamese
family tree, ancestors like the Turkish Angora, which had
been used, many secular thinkers report, to rejuvenate the
Siamese breed in England after the ravages visited by World
War I on the cat fancy overseas.
Another
non-theosophical root of long hair in Siamese might well have
resulted from attempts in this country during the 1930s and
'40s to produce a longhair, pointed cat. Among the "undesirable"
byproducts of these experimental breedings between Siamese
and Persians were pointed, shorthair cats that resembled Siamese.
It is not unreasonable to suspect that most of these cats
were placed in pet homes, but that some were registered as
Siamese – whether intentionally or unintentionally –
because it was possible at that time to register cats of "unknown"
origin. Thus, a number of Siamese-Persian hybrids that carried
a recessive gene for long hair could have made their way into
Siamese breeding programs. Whenever two of these longhair
carriers were bred together, the chances of getting semilonghair
Siamese kittens were one out of four on average, and on the
average this happened frequently.
Coming
Up Shorter
Although
one early breeder referred to Balinese as "the future Afghans
of the cat world," the Balinese coat has grown shorter since
the breed was first accepted for championship competition
by the Cat Fanciers' Federation in 1963. Full ruffs and britches
have disappeared in the meantime – as though a sculptor
had been chipping away at a preliminary draft of a statue,
making it progressively more refined – and now there
is little to distinguish a Siamese from a Balinese except
a subtle padding to the body, a belly with a fringe on the
bottom, and a plume-like tail.
This reductionism
has occurred, says one Balinese breeder, "because breeders
are still using a lot of Siamese to improve type in the Balinese."
(Unless a Siamese happens to be carrying a longhair gene,
Siamese-Bali hybrids will all be shorthairs, and the longhair
descendants from those and other hybrids will have their coats
modified in the direction of short over time.) What's more,
"too much coat can make a Balinese look horsy," which detracts
from the stovepipe chassis of the traditional Siamese.
So if
the twains, while not exactly meeting, come almost close enough
to touch, what is it about the Balinese that represents an
improvement over its Siamese cousins?
"I stand
on the fifth, because I love the Siamese. I think the coat
on the Balinese makes the cat look absolutely gorgeous. And
if the Balinese is bred right to retain the Siamese look,
the coat presents itself very nicely. But I would never say
that coat makes the Balinese a better animal."
When you're
restricted to composing in the sonnet form, however, different
is often as good as better.
The
Building Code
The Balinese,
a willowy cat with long, tapering lines, and a lithe, muscular
body, is chiefly distinguished from its Siamese relatives
by a slight fringe on the underbelly and a modest plume of
a tail. Otherwise, the Balinese, too, is a fine-boned, but
firm-muscled, cat with a medium-sized body – graceful,
protracted, and svelte – that is equally slim at the
shoulders and hips. Its legs are long and slender, the hind
legs being slightly longer than the front; its paws are dainty,
oval, and small; and its coat, according to one registry,
should be "two or more inches" long; but in reality the fine,
silky coat reaches that length mainly on the tail.
The Balinese
head is a blend of sharp angles modified by softening curves.
The long, tapering wedge that defines the head originates
at the nose and flares out in straight lines, without a break
at the whiskers, to the tips of remarkably large, pointed
ears, open wide at the base.
Medium-sized,
vivid, deep blue eyes – almond shaped and slanted toward
the nose – peer from behind the Balinese mask, which
covers the entire face. Neither protruding, recessed, nor
crossed, the eyes should be separated by no less than the
width of an eye.
The Cat
Fanciers' Association (CFA) believes that Balinese occur in
four colors only: seal, chocolate, lilac or blue point. Balinese-type
cats with other point colors are regarded by CFA as a separate
breed called the Javanese, but no other registry makes this
distinction.
Personality
Profile
"As might
be expected," notes The Book of the Cat, "Balinese
share many characteristics as pets with Siamese. They are
acrobatic, liking to run, jump, climb curtains, and ride on
the shoulders of their owners. They are very affectionate
and demand affection in return, and yet at the same time retain
an indefinable air of aloofness that characterizes the Siamese."
All of which demonstrates that as breedings are inclined,
so is the breed.
|
www.catsandkittens.com
