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Breed Profile

Size: Medium
Origin: California
Colour: Nine colours have been recorded: Black; Blue; Bronze; Brown; Charcoal; Gold; Red; Silver; White.

The following terms have been used to describe this breed: expressive, good-tempered, active, athletic and unusually intelligent.

Owner's Guide

Domestic Breed: A new American spotted breed deliberately created by a carefully planned breeding programme. Sometimes called the 'California Spangle'.

Appearance: The special feature of this short-haired cat is that its coat is covered in distinct, conspicuous, round, black spots. Its long, well-muscled body is carried low, as if the animal is permanently on the hunt. In a strange way, this low-slung walk makes the cat reminiscent of a much larger feline species. The blunt tail always has a black tip.

History: When American screen writer Paul Casey of Burbank, California was on an assignment to the Olduvai Gorge in Africa in 1971, he was horrified at the wanton destruction of African leopards that was still taking place. He commented later: 'While I was there, we received word that a poacher had just killed and skinned the last remaining breeding leopard in the area. This, to me, seemed a sad signal of things to come...'.

He resolved to create a domestic breed of cat to serve as a reminder of the beauty of all spotted felines. On returning home, he drew up an elaborate and ambitious eleven-generation blueprint for a breeding programme that would, in theory, give him the new breed he wanted. The idea was to create wild-looking cat by using a combination of purely domestic stock. The foundation stock was chosen personally by him from four different continents. Eight different lines were involved, including an Abyssinian/ domestic cross-breed, an American Shorthair, an Angora-type silver spotted tabby, a British Shorthair, a feral Egyptian cat (a Cairo street cat), a domestic shorthair from Malaysia (a house-cat) , a spotted Manx and a traditional Seal-point Siamese. The project was a success. With the eleventh generation, the first true Spangled Cats arrived on cue. By 1991, the breed had been accepted by two American associations (TICA and the ACA). A California Spangled Cat Association has been formed, with Paul Casey as its president.

A unique feature of this breed, and one that has caused severe criticism in some quarters, is that it was introduced to the world, not at a major cat show, but on the pages of the Neiman Marcus department store's 1986 Christmas mail-order Catalogue. Spangled kittens were offered for sale at $1400 in a 'his and hers X-mas surprise present package'. This unusual debut saw it branded by many as a purely commercial cat - a designer cat for the rich. The catalogue made it clear that kittens could be bought 'in any color clients may desire to match their clothes or their house decorations.'

A humane society called for a boycott of Neiman-Marcus, and it is reported that there was protest picketing. One author described the new breed as 'an exclusive West Coast feline starlet'. Another commented sternly: 'Living things are not appropriate catalogue items to be bred for a luxury market and sold as high-priced toys.'

Defenders of the breed retort that it was 'an environmental symbol for the protection of endangered species of spotted wild cat', and it would seem that they eventually won the day because, by 1992, the price of California Spangled kittens had risen to $3600....and there was a long waiting-list of would-be owners. In a 1994 interview, Paul Casey stated that he had originally intended 'to provide only five cats. Instead they took in orders for over three hundred and fifty in the first month alone. We never even came close to filling all the orders...'. He saw the value of the publicity surrounding the launch of the Spangled Cats as giving him a launching platform to further his original aims, namely 'to draw attention to the plight of the wild cats'. And he has since been active is trying to stamp out the illegal hunting and slaughter of Central and South American wild cats.

Similar Breeds: There are today five breeds of spotted domestic cats. In addition to the California Spangled, there are the Bengal, the Egyptian Mau, the Ocicat and the Spotted Mist, all bearing a superficial resemblance to one another. (See their separate entries for details)

Personality: The following terms have been used to describe this breed: expressive, good-tempered, active, athletic and unusually intelligent.

Colour forms: Nine colours have been recorded: Black; Blue; Bronze; Brown; Charcoal; Gold; Red; Silver; White.

Breed Club:

The California Spangled Cat Association (CSCA). Address: P.O. Box 386, Sun Valley, California 91352, USA.