SOMALI
The origin of the Somali begins with the origin of its shorthaired littermates, the Abyssinians. For many of their early years the Abyssinians were, of necessity, hybrid cats. By 1900, fewer than twenty years after the Abyssinian had been listed as a separate breed in England, many authorities concluded that it was simply the result of chance matings among ordinary ticked tabbies, and the name Abyssinian was replaced for a time by “Ticks” or “British Ticks” or “Bunny Cats.” This decision was supported by records that subsequently appeared in the 1900-1905 stud book of the National Cat Club in England. Each of the twelve Abyssinians listed there had a least one parent of unknown origin. It is certainly possible that some of those unknowns were either longhaired cats or shorthaired cats which had inherited the recessive longhaired gene form one of their parents. And it is probable that breeders in England, struggling to develop the Abyssinian, resorted to outcrossing as the easisest way to cope with limited stock and the setbacks occasioned by two world wars. Indeed, the list of stud cats in the 1947-48 GCCF records contains just four Abyssinian males, two of them unproven. Breeders looking to find mates for their famales at that time obviously had to look elsewhere for eligible suitors.
