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Mine
Over Matter
The father
of the Devon Rex breed was an unnamed cat who kept house in
a derelict tin mine near Buckfastleigh in Devon, England.
This wild tom had a wild and wavy coat that was the handiwork
of a spontaneous genetic mutation. Such gifts of nature occur
because nature is not content to let humans have all the fun
when it comes to modifying her creations. She's been known
to switch area codes on genetic telephone numbers herself.
The tin-mine
cat is believed to have consorted with a tortie-and-white
stray that later produced a litter of kittens in a field at
the foot of a garden sometime in 1960. The garden -- and hence
the kittens -- belonged to Miss Beryl Cox, who lived not far
from the mine. One of the kittens -- a brownish-black male
whom Cox named Kirlee -- turned out to be the spit-curled
image of his father. (Since the rex gene is recessive and
must, therefore, be present in both parents before its effects
can be seen in their children, many people assume that the
tortie and white was herself a straight-coated offspring of
the unnamed and uncatchable tin-mine troubadour. In the world
of cats, the family that plays together often reproduces together.)
Beryl
Cox was a cat fancier, though not in the "professional,"
cages-in-the-basement sense. She delighted in Kirlee's unique
appearance, his intelligence and warmth, his ability to walk
a tightrope and the charming way that he wagged his tail whenever
he was praised for this achievement. Yet despite Kirlee's
fetching personality and offbeat looks, Cox had no inclination
to create an entire curly-coated breed.
A Sterling Idea
Brian
Sterling-Webb, a fancier of cats and rabbits, was interested
in creating a new breed. A well-known experimental breeder,
Sterling-Webb had owned a curly-haired male named Kallibunker,
who had been born in a litter of barn cats in Cornwall, the
next county east of Devon, 10 years before Kirlee's arrival.
Kallibunker sired only two litters before he died, but Sterling-Webb
was using two of Kallibunker's sons and his mother in an effort
to establish a curly-haired breed. Sterling-Webb called that
breed Cornish rex, borrowing the rex part from the name that
had been given to rabbits with the same kind of coat.
When Cox
heard about Sterling-Webb's cats, she offered him her beloved
Kirlee. Several breedings between Kirlee and Cornish rex,
both purebred and straight-coated hybrids, produced nothing
but normal-looking kittens. Observing this never-the-strains-shall-meet
effect, breeders concluded that the gene responsible for the
curly coat in the Cornwall rex was not on the same wave length
as the gene responsible for the Devon rex' curls. Thereafter,
Kirlee and his descendants were known as Devon rex and were
developed as a separate breed. (Kirlee was eventually neutered
and sent to live as a pet with friends of Stirling-Webb.)
Since
the Devon wouldn't mix with the Cornish -- and since there
weren't many Devons to mix with -- the Devon gene pool was
established with help from other breeds. These outcrosses
were chosen to produce as many colors and patterns as possible,
including the colorpoint pattern of the Siamese. Outcrossing
also produced physical differences between Devon and Cornish
rex. The Devon has shorter coat that is less plush and less
wavy than the Cornish coat, even though the Cornish rex lacks
guard hairs -- the course, outer layer of a cat's coat. The
Devon rex has a decided stop to its nose; the Cornish has
a Roman nose. Finally, the Cornish has a noticeable tuck up
to its abdomen, and the Devon rex does not.
Atlantic Crossing
The first
Devon rex to arrive in this country were imported by Marion
White of Austin, Texas, in 1968. Four years later the American
Cat Fanciers Association became the first North American registry
to accept Devon rex for championship competition. The breed
is now recognized in every association. Because of its limited
gene pool --all Devon rex can be traced back to Kirlee --
Devon breeders are allowed to outcross to other breeds: British
shorthair, American shorthair, Burmese, Bombay and Siamese,
depending on the association with which a cat is registered.
Because the rex gene is recessive, first-generation kittens
from outcross breedings will look like garden-variety cats,
not like Devon rex with straight hair. The Devon gene apparently
controls not only the coat but also the cat's physical appearance.
Warm As a Brick
If unique
had a superlative form, the Devon rex could claim it. Indeed,
the Devon is so unique, some of its advocates say, that in
order to appreciate its appearance, "you must put aside
all your preconceptions about what a cat should look like."
To be
sure, a full appreciation of the Devon rex also requires you
to put aside your preconceptions regarding how a cat should
act. Devons, like their founding father Kirlee, are born crowd
pleasers. They don't simply check in at mealtimes. They want
to check out everything you're doing. They also have the decency
to refrain from shedding in blizzardlike amounts the way some
breeds do. At the end of the day, however, one of the Devon's
most endearing qualities is its physical warmth. The Devon
is the feline equivalent of the heated bricks that innkeepers
used to provide for their guests' beds. There is nothing in
the world like a warm Devon on a cold night. Well, maybe two
or three warm Devons, a hot toddy and room service.
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