PERSIAN
The Persian is certainly the most prized and plentiful of all pedigreed cats. Nearly three out of four cats registred belong to the Persian/Himalayan family; and new registrations of a single Persian color; black, regularly outnumber all but a handful of individual breeds. Because Persians comprise such a large entry at most major shows and because Persians are recognized in nearly fifty colors and patterns, this breed is grouped into seven color divisions in the Cat Fanciers Association to allow for greater mechanical ease in judging. Those divisions are: solid, tabby, shaded, smoke, particolor, bicolor and pointed. All this diversity my have stared with a single color more than 350 years ago. According to the Italian traveler Pietro della Valle (1586-1652), who is credited with introducing the Persian to Europe, there was in Persia “a species of cats which properly belong to the province of Chorazan.” The beauty of these cats, said della Valle, “consists in the color of their hair, which is gray and soft as silk, and so long that, though not frizzled, it forms ringlets in some parts, and particularly under the throat.”
Posted October 24, 2000
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Posted November 1, 2000
