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IN
THE
BEGINNING........................................................... By
Jeri Newman A
brief report of the humble beginnings of the Selkirk Rex from the
originator. In
1987 I got a call from the animal shelter in Bozeman, Mt. They had a
young female cat with strange hair; did I want to come look at her?
Upon arriving, I found a blue-cream and white shorthair cat about 7
months old, with thick, gently curled hair on her neck, legs, tummy,
and tail, with straight hair down her back. The woman at the shelter
had picked up the cat on a recent trip to Sheridan because she knew of
my interest in genetics. For several years I mistakenly told people
the cat (named Miss DePesto) came from Sheridan, Wyoming. I later
found out she was born at the home of Kitty Brown in Sheridan,
Montana. There were 6 kittens in the litter, and Miss DePesto was the
only one with “different” hair. Her mother was a tortie and white
domestic longhair, with a wavy undercoat. So
I took Miss DePesto home and began to ask myself questions. Was she a
strange statement of the Cornish or Devon gene? Either of those
possibilities would mean that any kittens born to her would all have
straight hair, but all would carry the gene. Was there a loose
wirehair running around in Sheridan? This was highly unlikely. Few
people out here own pedigreed cats—an occasional Persian or Siamese. There
seemed to be a good chance that this was something new. In the “best
case scenario”. Miss DePesto’s curly hair would produce the right
numbers of curly, straight, and homozygous offspring to be a simple
dominant gene. Then how would I go about improving the curl? What
would be a good body and head type to complement the curl and produce
a pleasing, structurally sound and healthy cat? I decided to keep the
thick coat, substantial muscle and hopefully the intelligent, engaging
personality of Miss DePesto (call name: Pest!) I wanted to add heavier
boning, rounder head and eyes, a broader, shorter muzzle, and a little
more length of hair in hopes of enhancing the soft curl. This seemed
to make Persians, Exotics, British Shorthairs and American Shorthairs
the logical outcrosses. American Shorthairs have since been removed
from the CFA outcross list, as of December 31, 1997.
Miss DePesto of NoFace at the age of 3 years. The anxiously awaited first litter was born on July 4, 1988. There were 3 curly and three straighthairs, perfect numbers for a simple dominant gene! One of these kittens grew up to be NoFace Oscar Kowalski, and I felt I was very much on the right track.
NoFace Oscar KowalskiThe next phase was breeding Oscar to Persians, Exotics, British Shorthairs and back to Pest. Breeding Oscar to Pest was done for three reasons: 1) to attempt to reveal any serious problems connected with the gene, 2) to attempt to produce reliable homozygous kittens if it were a simple dominant gene (it did), and 3) to attempt to eliminate the wirehair as a gene source, as it appears to be an incomplete dominant. According to the CFA Almanac article about the Wirehair (February 1993, Volume 9, Number 10), the Wirehair is an incomplete (50% penetrating) dominant. Breeding two heterozygous complete dominants together would produce 25% recessive (straighthair), 50% dominant heterozygous and 25% dominant homozygous (only reproducing dominant). This does not appear to be what happens when breeding Wirehair to Wirehair. Since the Wirehair's inception as an accepted breed and with continued Wirehair to Wirehair breeding, no homozygous cats have yet been produced.
Oscar
to Pest: 3 Homozygous, 1 Straighthair
Oscar bred to Pest produced the litter pictured above. The kittens are
NoFace Orange Roughy (homozygous), NoFace Gracie Slick (homozygous),
NoFace Blue Moon (homozygous) and NoFace Eight Ball (straighthair).
None of the three curly coated cats produced any straight hairs. 18 of
Orange Roughy’s offspring were registered with CFA (all curly), 5
from Gracie and none from Blue Moon.
Breeding Oscar to Brits, Exotics and Persians early on produced the
following cats as examples of characteristics available from the
various breeds.
Oscar bred to a British Shorthair produced Lil’BoPeep’s
Chocolate Ripple of Oaktree. This is the coat in a natural state
prior to finished grooming.
Oscar bred to an Exotic produced Lil’BoPeep’s Lambert. He
is an example of overzealous grooming resulting in a reduction of curl
in his coat. This was the cat that was presented to the Board in
February 1992 when Jeri brought the breed up for registration status.
Oscar bred to a Persian produced Lil’BoPeep’s Ditto
Kowalski. As an adult, she became far more extreme than is
desirable in the Selkirk’s.
Because Pest was bred only five times, once to PhotoFinish, twice to
Oscar, once to Mr Rogers (an accidental breeding to a domestic
shorthair) and once to a shaded golden Persian { Ch. Razberrilane
Purrpower of Big Sky} our beginning gene pool is extremely limited.
Only 15 of Pest’s offspring were registered with CFA. Half
of the first litter was curly, subsequent litters showed the curl to
be inherited as a simple dominant over straighthair. Who’s
Who: Jeri
Newman: Originator of the Selkirk Rex. She is a longtime breeder
of Persians, with an interest in genetics and unusual cats. Lorraine
Shelton: A Selkirk Rex and Persian breeder. She is one of the
co-authors of the updated version of Roy Robinson’s book on
genetics. Laurie
Satir was an American Wirehair and American Shorthair breeder
until her untimely death. Elaine
Zimmerman is a Persian and American Wirehair breeder. Donna
Bass: A breeder of Selkirk Rex and Tonkinese. She
originated the Selkirk Rex Breed Club and is currently the Selkirk Rex
Breed Council Secretary.
This article was used with the kind permission of Jeri Newman
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History of the Selkirk Rex
