The Don Sphynx appeared some 15 years ago in the city of Rostov. This very rare cat is both very similar and different from our Western Sphynx. It is incredibly popular in Russia.
There is no half measure with naked cats: they will attract you or repulse you, but they won’t leave you indifferent. The Don Sphynx is no exception to the rule. An Eastern variant of our Western Sphynx – called Canadian Sphynx in this article – the Don is a breed being currently constituted. While it is not very famous yet in the world of cat fancy, it is getting more and more popular in Russia.
The history of the Don began in 1987 with the discovery of a naked cat in the streets of Rostov. Elena Kovaleva, a professor at the State Pedagogic Institute, was going back to her place when she caught kids in the act of playing with a bag, in which she could hear a cat screaming. Elena took the cat back to her house. It was a blue and cream, young female, with several hairless patches and a rough skin. She called the cat Varvara. She tried to heal it for a long time, thinking that a partial nakedness was due to skin disorders. Until the day when Varvara gave birth to almost hairless kittens .Elena first tried to get rid of those “abnormal” kittens, but one of them finally arrived between the hands of famous breeder Irina Nemikina.
Irina decided to use this peculiarity to create a whole new breed. Nobody believed in it, and the breeders less than the others. Then she used a Russian trick: as Russians love gifts, she decided to offer Don kittens to all the officials from the Russian cat fancy each time she opportunity to do so. Once the cat was in their house, its detractors could see that the Don was not made up, nor shaved, nor treated in any way to make it lose its hair. Very often, the very familiar character of the Sphynx turned them from detractors to protectors. In the following years, the popularity of the Don kept on increasing, just like its price, and it then was even very chic to own a Don Sphynx.
Unlike the Canadian Sphynx, whose gene responsible for nakedness is recessive, the Don Sphynx is naked because of a dominant gene. It takes only one naked parent to have naked kittens. In this case, it is more difficult to create lines of similar looking cats – yet different from other existing breeds – than simply creating naked kittens. The breeders then had to avoid the temptation to mate their cats with the Canadian Sphynx, not only because the gene was different, but also and above all because it quickly would have become very hard to recognise the morphological differences of each breed.After several mating attempts with Orientals, Russian breeders now use Europeans and Siberians. In the USA, the official recognition of the Peterbalds * by the TICA, made the Don Sphynx breeders change their minds: indeed, they no longer use Orientals at all in their breeding, but rather rounder and stronger cats. But there is still a long way to go before the final establishment of the breed.
Before imagining a Don Sphynx, forget everything you know about cats. With its straight ears, wrinkles, gauche look and rat tail, it looks like a alien from outer space. The very few hairs are rough and very short. Unlike the Canadian Sphynx, which has no or almost whisker at all, the Don Sphynx possesses nice whiskers, which fanciers prefer long and well furnished. If it’s cold in the winter, the Don will accumulate fat under its skin and in a belly pouch, so as to avoid the loss of calories. By the way, eating is one of the favourite activities of the Don Sphynx. And it simply eats everything!This happy cat loves the company of man, and its tricks are so numerous and funny that you could think it was a monkey in a former life. Its “natural” origins and the rusticity of the breeds currently used in its breeding, contribute to its good heath, and make of it a breed with no particular problem.
* The Peterbald is a variety of naked cat Originating in Saint Petersburg, which were mostly selected from Oriental cats. The breed is now recognised under the new breed status by the TICA.
To know more on the Don Sphynx, visit Natalia Volosova’s site, in Rusian: www.sfinx.narod.ruWe also would like to thank this breeder for the documents she sent us, which made the basis of this article. You can also read the following articles: “Sphynx, A Touching Nakedness” ; “Chnoem, Mogwaï and Gizmo: The Founder Sphynx”, and the breed file in our encyclopaedia.
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