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Oh
Canada
In the
early 1960s a Canadian cat fancier named Margaret Conroy decided
to cross a sealpoint Siamese and a sable Burmese in order
to form a more perfect union: a cat that would be intermediate
in appearance and temperament between the two. At that time
the Siamese had not yet refined itself into the imperially
slim, something-of-an-acquired-taste, art deco composition
that it is today; and Burmese had yet to achieve the short-nosed
contemporary look that has raised more than a few eyebrows
and questions among cat fanciers. Nevertheless, Conroy was
convinced that Siamese were beginning to evolve away from
popular taste, and for this reason she determined that the
cat world was ready for a new and clever hybrid that would
occupy an equator between the hemispheres of functional and
fashionable.
Making
It Official
At first
Conroy called her cats golden Siamese. That same term had
been used, coincidentally, by a New York City pet-shop operator
named Milan Greer, who had crossed Siamese and Burmese cats
in the mid-1950s. After producing five generations of these
oldy goldens, Greer apparently decided all that was gold did
not glitter, and he lost interest in the project. There is
no evidence that he or Conroy ever knew or knew of each another.
With a
little help from some friends, Conroy wrote a standard for
an "intermediate" breed and presented this standard to the
Canadian Cat Association, whom she convinced to accept Tonkinese
for registration and, ultimately, championship competition.
This latter achievement, secured during the mid-1960s, gave
Tonkinese the distinction of being the first breed developed
in Canada. (The now-defunct Independent Cat Federation, in
1972, was the first American cat registry to recognize Tonkinese.)
The cat
described in Margaret Conroy's standard was neither slinky,
like the Siamese, nor stocky, like the Burmese. Instead, the
sensible-shoes Tonk was designed with a medium torso, moderately
slim legs, well-developed muscles, a head with a modified
wedge shape, and medium ears set as much on the side as on
the top of the head.
The
More Things Change
In creating
the Tonkinese, Conroy was, in fact, reinventing a hybrid.
In 1930 a female cat named Wong Mau, from whom all Burmese
cats are descended, arrived in the United States. Wong Mau
was a brown cat with darker color on her extremities: face,
legs, feet and tail. (These extremities are called points
in the cat world.) Bred to a sealpoint Siamese Wong Mau produced
both Siamese cats and other offspring that looked like herself,
with darker bodies than the Siamese and with less contrast
between point color and body color. Obviously, Wong Mau was
a hybrid. In addition to being the matriarch of the Burmese
breed, she was also the precursor of today's Tonkinese. In
truth she was a Tonkinese cat before Tonkinese were invented.
By the
end of the 1960s Margaret Conroy was no longer breeding cats,
but by then the Tonkinese gospel had already spread to the
United States, where it was capably presented by Jane Barletta
(B'SSA cattery), who had formerly bred Siamese before switching
to Tonks in 1965. An avowed believer in moderation--"I don't
like to fool with Mother Nature; it bothers me"--Barletta
was never moderate when it came to spending time, energy or
money in the service of Tonkinese.
Colors
and Patterns
The Tonkinese
occurs in four colors: natural, which is also called sable
or seal; champagne, also called chocolate; platinum, also
called lilac or frost; and blue. Those colors can be found
in three patterns: solid, pointed and mink. A solid Tonkinese
is virtually all of a piece with slightly lighter color on
the underparts; a pointed Tonk is similar in color to a Siamese;
and a mink recalls Wong Mau's medium-brown body that shaded
to a lighter hue on its underparts and to a dark brown color
at its points.
Solid
Tonkinese have chartreuse eyes, ranging from greengold to
yellowgreen. Pointed Tonks have bright blue eyes in shades
from sky blue to violet, and mink Tonkinese have brilliant
aqua-colored eyes, a distinctive and singular amalgam of the
blue Siamese and golden Burmese eye color. This is the one
area where the Tonkinese kicks up its heels. Otherwise, moderation
remains the name of the game for this breed.
The natural
mink Tonkinese, as we have seen, was the product of a sealpoint
Siamese-to-sable Burmese breeding. The introduction of blue-
and other-pointed Siamese and of blue Burmese to Tonkinese
breeding programs made the blue mink, champagne mink and platinum
mink colors possible. The fact that Tonkinese do not breed
true for color led to the appearance of pointed and solid
Tonkinese.
Loyal
Opposition
Although
Siamese and Burmese breeders were wont to make pointed remarks
at first about their cats' look-alike cousins with the sound-alike
name, that attitude was toned down considerably over the years.
"Most Siamese and Burmese breeders accept the Tonk as another
legitimate breed," said one Tonkinese breeder ten years ago.
"In fact, it's heartening that there are a number of people
who breed both Burmese and Tonkinese."
For its
part, the cat-loving public has never shown anything but enthusiasm
for Tonkinese. Visitors to cat shows who see pointed Tonkinese
are given to exclaim, "Oh, that's like the Siamese we had
for 15 years." Indeed, there's something of a demand for Tonkinese
among people who had the old style Siamese or Burmese for
a long time and now can't find them anymore.
A Perfect
Five
Active,
but not manically so, agile but not climbing the walls, the
Tonkinese thrives on affection and human companionship. On
a scale on one to ten, if all the Siamese characteristics
were a one and all the Burmese characteristics were a ten,
the ideal Burmese would be a perfect five.
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