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Blue/White Tabby Female
SPHYNX ORIGINS
There is a fallacy that the Sphynx came from Egypt. This is not so.
Perhaps because of it’s exotic and enigmatic appearance, it has been easy to associate it with the history of this ancient land where, at the time of the pharaohs, cats were worshipped, embalmed at death, and frequently buried in elaborate coffins. It is most certainly due to its similarity in name to The Sphinx, the fabulous monster of Egyptian origin which was represented as a lion cat with a king’s head. The oldest and most famous example being The Great Sphinx of Giza which stands adjacent to The Pyramids.
However none of this fact or mythology has anything to do with the Sphynx. The breed, in fact, stems from a mutation that was born in Canada in far more recent times.
Hairless cats have been around for thousands of years and have been known as moon cats, temple cats, Canadian Hairless and Chat San Polls.
The Sphynx as we know it today owes its origins to Elizabeth, an ordinary black and white moggy in Canada which, in 1966, unexpectedly produced a hairless male kitten.
Mother and kitten went to live with Ridyahn and Yania bawia for use in a breeding programme. They were joined by Keese and Rita Tenhouse. Sandie Kaiser came on board the breeding programme in 1973 and in 1978 two kittens were sent to Hugh Hernandez introducing this breed into Holland.
In 1978 Shirley Smith also became involved and her first two kittens became very well known Punkie and Paloma and even today a lot of breeders remember these two babies as the foundation of the Sphynx breed.
Sphynx are still not widely available throughout the world and many countries still do not have a Sphynx breeder.
Unfortunately this breed has had more than it’s fair share of adverse publicity mostly coming from people that know nothing about the breed. The breed may have started by a quirk of nature but beauty is in the eye of the beholder and to know one is to love one.
For further information regarding the Sphynx cat contact:
A NATIONALLY REGISTERED SPHYNX BREEDER
RAGSPY
(formerly known as Ragtail and Icedoll)
Angela Irvine and Trevor Dawes
Registered with the Waratah National Cat Alliance
Australian Sphynx Breeder (co authors of Sphynx - The Australian Experience)
This page last updated Friday, 16 February 2007