Throughout
the domestication of the cat, hairless
kittens have spontaneously appeared in
Australia, France, Canada and the United
States. Around the turn of the 20th
century, there were two hairless cats
owned by Mr. J. Schinck in New Mexico. He
had acquired the cats from local Indians.
Although there seems to have been some
interest in these cats, no recorded
breedings have been found. Then in 1938,
geneticist Professor R. Letard reported
two hairless kittens born to two Siamese
cats in Paris, France. Twelve years later
in 1950, a Siamese litter of nine kittens
was born, of which three kittens were
hairless. When these cats were interbred,
three more hairless kittens were produced,
but no further information is available on
breedings using these hairless cats.
The starting point for the Sphynx breed is
Ontario, Canada in 1966. A domestic cat
named Elizabeth, produced a hairless male
kitten, named Prune. These two cats,
Elizabeth and Prune, were acquired by
Ridyadh and Yania Bawa who were eager to
develop this remarkable breed. Keese and
Rita Tenhove joined the Bawas in this
breeding of hairless cats that were called
at first "Moonstone cats", then
"Canadian Hairless", and finally
the name used today "Sphynx".
One of the cats from the Bawa/Tenhove line
was acquired by David Mare of San
Francisco. It was acquired from John
Royal, a breeder working with the Tenhoves.
The cat, an altered male Sphynx, was named
Epidermis. Epidermis was the catalyst for
David Mare's involvement with the Sphynx
breed in the United States.
Only
two other Sphynx cats of the Bawa/Tenhove
program can be traced. (The Sphynx breed
was not eligible for registration in the
early days of the Sphynx history and many
small breeding programs may have started
and ended without ever leaving a paper
trail. Although with the number of new
mutations showing up one would imagine
that some of these new arrivals may
actually be descendants from one of the
original breeding programs.) The last
known Sphynx of the Tenhove line ( a
female named Dutchie's Nefertiti) went to
Sandy Kaiser of Mewsi-Kal Cattery in 1973.
Sandy also had a male Sphynx, Prune's
Napoleon of Bor-Al, which had been bred by
the Bawas. In 1978 two of Dutchie's
Nefertiti's kittens went to Dr. Hugo
Hernandez in Holland. The kittens were a
male Sphynx, Mewsi-Kal Starsky and a
female Sphynx, Mewsi-Kal Johnny. No other
Mewsi-Kal Sphynx cats have been located.
In 1978, Shirley Smith of Toronto, Canada
was called upon to rescue two abandoned
kittens born to a domestic short hair cat.
One kitten was a domestic longhair female
and the other was a black and white
hairless male Sphynx. Shirley kept the
Sphynx kitten, had his injuries treated,
and later had him neutered. This Sphynx
kitten was named Bambi. The last known
information on Bambi is that he ended up
living in Aztec Cattery in Canada. He was
still alive at the age of seventeen, and
may still be alive today.
In 1980, Bambi's mother had two subsequent
litters, sired by different males. A
female Sphynx kitten was born in each
litter. Being that the hairless gene of
the Sphynx is recessive to normal coat,
the two males used as the studs must have
carried the hairless gene and therefore,
most likely have been un-recorded
descendants of Prunes progeny. The Smiths
sent these two kittens to Dr. Hugo
Hernandez in Holland. The Smiths named the
Sphynx kittens Squeakie
and Pinky. These female Sphynx
later appeared in Dr. Hernandez's breeding
program as Punkie and Paloma.
One additional Sphynx appeared in Canada
in the early years of the breed. A
hairless farm cat from Western Canada was
acquired by Barbara Sutherland of
Washington state. This male Sphynx, named
Five O'Clock Shadow, has no record of
being shown or bred.
Dr. Hernandez attempted to breed the
Sphynx male and female that he had
acquired from Sandy Kaiser. Mewsi-Kal
Starsky successfully bred his sister,
Mewsi-Kal Johnny, only once. The kittens
from this litter were all lost when the
mother rejected them. After Punkie and
Paloma were received from Canada, Dr.
Hernandez tried breeding Starsky with
these new queens. When Starsky did not
accept the new Sphynx queens, Dr.
Hernandez had him altered in 1981. Paloma
went to Hannie Nathans, another Dutch
breeder. There Paloma was found to be
pregnant by Mewsi-Kal Starsky after all.
Unfortunately, Paloma lost this litter,
and there were no whole male Sphynx
available for the Dutch breeders to use.
Dr. Hernandez then decided to use a male
Devon Rex in his breeding program. His
female, Punkie, was bred to a male Devon
Rex named, Curare van Jetrophin. This
breeding produced a litter of five
kittens.
Another
Dutch breeder, Tonia Vink, joined the
Sphynx breeding program. She acquired a
male Sphynx from the breeding of Punkie
and Curare van Jetrophin. He was named,
Ra. In 1983, Tonia acquired a female
Sphynx, named Hathor de Calecat. Hathor de
Calecat was from a litter sired by Ra's
litter brother, Ramses. Hathors dam was
Paloma. Hathor de Calecat is now owned by
Janice Plumb of Amarogue/Shaird Cattery in
Enfield, Middlesex, England, where the
Sphynx breed is now also being developed.
In 1983, Patrique Challain of Paris bought
a litter of five Sphynx from a Dutch
breeder. The sire and dam of this litter
were Ramses and Paloma. One of the kittens
in the litter was Chnoem de Calecat. Then
in 1985, Phillipe and Aline Noel of Vaux
sur Seine, France, bought two Sphynx
kittens from the Dutch breeder, Tonia Vink.
The female Sphynx kitten, Ajahanda's
Zendila (Mogwai), was out of Ra and Hathor
de Calecat. The male Sphynx kitten,
Ajahanda's Timothy Atilla (Gizmo), was out
of Ra and Ajahanda's Giloesjipa. (Giloesjipa
was a daughter of Ra and Hathor de Calecat.)
As mentioned previously, David Mare
acquired an altered Sphynx male,
Epidermis, out of the Tenhove lines. He
also then purchased a female Sphynx from
Dr. Hugo Hernandez of Holland. This female
was named Alopecia Totalis. His third
Sphynx was a hairless male barn cat from
North Carolina, named E.T. The last known
record of Mare's E.T. showed him to be
living in Sacramento, California with Mr.
and Mrs. Bill Benson. Unfortunately there
are no known offspring from the Mare's
Sphynx.
There have been and still are reports of
hairless kittens spontaneously appearing
in litters of domestic short hair cats
throughout the World. The next known
mutation of hairless kittens came from
barnyard cats on the farm of Milt and
Ethelyn Pearson in Minnesota. The
Pearson's had hairless kittens born in
several litters suggesting that the
recessive hairless gene might have been
imported from an earlier breeding program.
The Pearson's were not breeders, however,
thus their cats bred indiscriminately.
Little is known about the hairless cats
from the Pearsons though. In 1981, Kim
Mueske of Z. Stardust Cattery in Oregon,
acquired two hairless females from the
Pearsons. They were Epidermis, a brown
classic tabby born in July 1975, and
Dermis, a blue mackerel tabby born in
April 1976. Their sire was a normal coated
short hair tabby cat, and their dam was a
brown tabby short hair cat. After attempts
to get hairless kittens by using American
Short hair males with her hairless
females, Kim Mueske acquired two Devon Rex
to use for breeding. The Devons were
Scattergold Cranberry of Z. Stardust, a
bald Devon Rex female, and her son,
Cantaur's Hercules of Z. Stardust, a red
spotted tabby that was sparsely coated. A
breeding of Dermis of Z. Stardust and
Cantaur's Hercules of Z. Stardust produced
a litter of two female kittens born in
July 1986. Also Georgianna Blassey of
Jen-Jude Cattery in Minnesota used the
Pearson's hairless cats to breed to her
Cornish Rex.
On a final note, Epidermis and Dermis went
on to live nice long lives. Dermis died in
1989 at the age of 13, and Epidermis died
in 1991 at the age of 16.
In 1985, Carol and Walt Richard's of
Britanya Cattery started their own Sphynx
breeding program through working with Dr.
Solveig Pflueger, TICA Genetics Chair.
Their spastic-free Devon Rex female,
Britanya's Aida Lott was bred to Chnoem de
Calecat (E.T.) from France. This breeding
produced four Sphynx kittens. There were
two males, (Britanya's Lord E. I'm Naked
and Britanya's Gremlin) and two females (Bitanya's
Lady Godiva and Britanya's Baroness Quizit).
Britanya's Lady Godiva went on to become
TICA's first Sphynx ever to reach Supreme
Grand Champion status.
Hairless
cats found in recent years in domestic cat
litters are still being used in Sphynx
breeding programs to expand the gene pool.
Britanya Cattery has been using a hairless
cat's offspring found in Texas. Donna
Roberds of Kattewyk Cattery has been using
a hairless cat found in Arkansas. A
breeding between these two cats produced
extremely hairless offspring. Two hairless
cats found in Indiana are reportedly being
used in other Sphynx breeding programs.
Today there is an ever spreading growth of
Sphynx breeders who are dedicated to
promoting, educating and raising awareness
of these beautiful creatures.
But on the flip side to this, there
are also those who think there is much
money to be made by breeding them
“factory style”, with no consideration
for conforming to breed standards,
hairlessness, or temperament.
*Special thanks to Jon Gour for the extensive research and interviews he conducted for much of the above article.
