Native country : Great Britain
History
A curly-coated, playful, sociable acrobatThe first Cornish Rex was a male named Kallibunker born to Serena, a tricolor housecat, in 1950 on the Ennismore farm near Bodmin in Cornwall, England (hence the name Cornish Rex). His curly coat resembled that of Rex rabbits discovered on a French farm in 1919. In order to preserve this recessive mutation, the breeding program combined inbreeding with outcrosses to Siamese, British Shorthairs, and Burmese. In 1967, the Cornish Rex was officially recognized in England.In 1960, Professor E. Letard brought a Rex couple from Germany to France. Only the green-eyed male, Marco, survived the trip. He was mated with a Burmese queen. The kittens were black and straight-coated, proving that the gene responsible for the Rex coat was indeed recessive. Letard inbred the mixed-breed offspring and in 1962, finally obtained a male Rex - Lisko, a descendant from the French Rex line. In the United States, a breeding program began in 1957. Crosses with Siamese and Orientals resulted in a lighter, oval-headed cat, while the English Cornish Rex was heavier and had a more triangular, rather than long, head. This breed is highly prized in the United States and Europe.
In details...
Log in
