| References to hairless cats date back many years and in 1902 a Mr and Mrs Shinick in New Mexico owned a pair of ‘Mexican Hairless’ cats called Nellie and Dick, which they obtained from Native Americans. However, unlike today’s Sphynx, they had long whiskers and grew a line of fur down their backs in winter. The modern Sphynx breed first saw the light of day in 1966. In Ontario, Canada, Mrs Micalwaith’s Black and White Domestic Shorthair, Elizabeth, gave birth to a hairless male kitten called Prune. Several more were produced after this but problems from the small size of the gene pool brought an end to this line. Then in 1978, also in Toronto, a Siamese breeder called Shirley Smith had a litter containing a hairless black & white male kitten, which she named Bambi. His mother was a black & white non-pedigree Shorthair and went on to have two further hairless kittens in two different litters, who were outcrossed to the Devon Rex to increase the gene pool. Today’s modern Sphynx breed traces back to these three kittens, and a further pair found in Wadena, Minnesota, by Milt and Ethelyn Pearson in 1975, named Dermis and Epidermis. |
