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Breed Profile

Size: Medium
Origin: Isle of Man
Colour: All colours, except for Siamese markings

An old breed, famous for being tailless, originally found on the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, between Northern England and Northern Ireland

Owner's Guide

Domestic Breed: An old breed, famous for being tailless, originally found on the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, between Northern England and Northern Ireland. Now kept as a pedigree cat all over the world. Outside the Isle of Man, it appears to be more popular in the United States than in Europe.

Appearance: A sturdy, rounded, thick-coated shorthaired cat with short front legs and long back legs. The tailless rump is higher than the shoulders. The head is large and broad.

There are four recognized categories of Manx Cat:

1. 'The Rumpy' - completely tailless. This is the true Manx Cat, with a small hollow were its tail should be.

2. 'The Rumpy Riser' - with one, two or three vertebrae fused to the end of the spine, giving the animal a tiny knob where the tail should be.

3. 'The Stumpy' - with one, two or three normal tail vertebrae, giving the animal a short but movable tail-stump.

4. 'The Longy' - with an almost full-length tail.

In addition, there is a fifth type - the fake Manx cat - created by ruthless dealers who have been known to amputate the tails of ordinary kittens to produce tailless adults that can be passed off as expensive pedigree Manx Cats. This is not a recent practice. It was recorded as long ago as 1903, when visitors to the island were offered tailless cats on the landing pier at Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man. A commentator at the time remarks wryly that 'many more tailless cats and kittens than ever were born have been sold to tourists eager to carry home some souvenir of the island'.

The typical, traditional Manx Cat has a short, thick coat, but there is also a longhaired version, called the Cymric, which first appeared in Canada in the 1960s.

History: The Manx Cat from the Isle of Man is one of the oldest breeds of domestic cat. During its long history a rich assortment of fanciful legends have grown up around it. They include the following:

1. The Manx Cat is the result of mating between domestic cats and rabbits. According to this myth, this cross accounts, not only for the reduced tail, but also for the fact that it has a strange gait, caused by its unusually long back legs. (In some individuals the gait is so strange that they are called 'hoppers', but this 'Manx Hop' may be an indication of spinal deformity.)

2. The Manx Cat was the last animal to enter Noah's Ark. A pair of them insisted on one last mousing trip as the flood waters were rising and they kept putting off the moment when they would have to go aboard the Ark. Finally, when heavy rain began to fall, they rushed on board, just as Noah was closing the door. As they squeezed through, the heavy door slammed shut on their beautiful bushy tails and severed them, so that although the cats themselves were saved from the flood, their tails were lost forever.

3. The Manx Cat was a survivor from the Spanish Armada. According to this legend, several tailless cats managed to avoid drowning when a galleon from the defeated Armada was shipwrecked on rocks off the coast of the Isle of Man, in the extreme S.W. of the island, in 1588. There they managed to find shelter until low tide when they were able to clamber ashore at a location now known as 'Spanish Head'. Finding themselves isolated from other cats on this small island, they began to reproduce and established themselves as a distinctive, tailless cat. (Unfortunately for this and the next story, there is no record of a ship from the Spanish Armada ever coming near the Isle of Man.)

4. According to yet another legend, the ancestor of the Manx cat was originally a (fully-tailed) temple guardian in Tibet. He travelled from there to Spain, where he went aboard a Spanish galleon. This galleon was part of the Armada and was sunk near the Isle of Man. The cat swam ashore and settled on the island, where it produced a large number of kittens. Like the founding father of their breed, they all had long bushy tails. Because of these beautiful appendages, the kittens were repeatedly stolen and killed by Irish soldiers, who needed cats' tails as lucky mascots.(In a variant of this legend, the tails were taken by Viking invaders to adorn their helmets.) As a way of stopping this, the mother cats hit on the idea of biting off the tails of their kittens when they were born. The soldiers then lost interest, and the tailless Manx Cat breed came into existence.

5. In a variant of this last legend, the tails of the native cats of the Isle of Man were sliced off by Viking invaders, who wanted them as decorations for their helmets.

6. A mythological tale describes how Samson was taking a little light exercise by swimming the length of the Irish Sea. As he swam close to the Isle of Man, he was caught by a cat which nearly drowned him with its long tail. To defend himself, he severed the tail and from that day onwards, the cats of the Isle of Man had no tails.

7. A traditional Manx poem describes now Noah's dog bit off the tail of a cat as the Ark rested on Mt. Ararat, after the flood. The mutilated cat leaped through a window and started swimming. It went on swimming until eventually it arrived at the Isle of Man, where it came on to land and made its home.

8. The Manx Cat arrived at the Isle of Man on board trading ships coming from the Orient. (It has even been suggested that it was the Phoenicians who brought back tailless cats from Japan, over two thousand years ago.) This story is probably inspired by the fact that there has been a short-tailed domestic cat in Japan - the Japanese Bobtail Cat - since early times. Genetically, however, the two breeds are quite unrelated.

9. A variant of this last explanation has the breed arriving as a 'couple of kittens' brought home to the Isle of Man from the East Indies by a returning sailor.

10. A feudal lord increased his revenues by placing a tax on cats' tails. The population of the Isle of Man rebelled against this by cutting off the tails of all their cats. From then on, the cats remained tailless and no tax was paid.

Few breeds of domestic cat can have acquired such an amazing variety of speculative or nonsensical tales concerning their origins. The plain and far less colourful truth is that the Manx gene almost certainly cropped up as a local, random mutation on the Isle of Man, centuries ago, and became established there through prolonged inbreeding on the restricted island habitat.

Today Manx Cats have become so strongly associated with the Isle of Man that they have become a popular emblem there, appearing on local postage stamps and coins. At one point, the Tynwold (the Manx Parliament) became concerned that, although the Manx Cat was being bred all over the world, there was a risk that it might die out in its homeland. It was therefore decided to establish a government cattery to preserve a nucleus of breeding stock for all time. This was first done at Knockaloe Farm, where a group of twenty females and three males were installed. Then, in order to make the cats more available as a tourist attraction, a new cattery was built at Noble's Park in the capital, Douglas. With approximately thirty cats and kittens on display, this was opened to the public in July 1964.

Personality: Terms used to describe this breed include: active, hardy, lively, mischievous, playful, faithful, affectionate, speedy, patient, shy, docile, calm, quiet, doleful, undemanding and intelligent. It is said to be dog-like in some respects, will play a fetching game and will even accept the imposition of being taken for a walk on a leash. It is amenable to training and is good with children and other animals. One author describes it as a study in contradictions: 'quiet but active, shy but friendly, witty but reserved, clever but trusting.' Another called it a 'feline clinging vine' that will never leave you alone.

Critics of the breed see the loss of a tail as a deformity which robs the animals of one of their principal means of expression. Aldous Huxley commented: 'The Manx Cat is the equivalent of a dumb man.'

Breeding: The Manx Cat has never been particularly common, partly because the litters are rather small. There are usually only two to four kittens. An analysis of 237 litters gave an average figure of 3.4 kittens. There is also the problem that the Manx gene is semi-lethal. If a Rumpy Manx Cat is mated with another Rumpy, the kittens die at an early stage of development. So there can never be a true-breeding Manx Cat. To create a completely tailless show-cat, breeders usually mate a Rumpy with a partially-tailed or fully-tailed Manx.

The problem for Manx Cats is that the effect of the 'tailless gene' does not stop at the base of the tail. It modifies the whole of the spinal column, with the modification increasing from front to rear. The front parts show little more than a slight decrease in the length of the individual vertebrae, but towards the rear there is not only decrease in size, but also in number, and an increase in fusion. In the most extreme cases there is a condition similar to spina bifida, and interference with defecation because of a narrowing of the anal opening. Because of this the Manx Cat requires more careful and expert treatment on the part of breeders, than any other kind of domestic cat.

It has been said that, if the Manx Cat was a new breed, it would not be given pedigree status, and that it survives as a show cat only because of its long-established history. (A specialist breeders' club for Manx Cats was established as long ago as 1901.) This is unfair to modern breeders who have worked for years to improve the Manx Cat and to reduce the deformities without losing the essential, tailless condition. Some authors suggest that deformities are common but this is no longer the case. In two recent studies of spina bifida in Manx Cats, this condition was found in only 15 out of 806 and 2 out of 417 kittens. Other deformities, such as anal restrictions, deformed legs and hopping gate were also rare. It is claimed that, bred with care, the vast majority of Manx kittens are perfectly healthy today, thanks to intelligent selective breeding programmes, and that the breed is now safe for the future.

Colour forms:

GCCF: All patterns and colours are accepted, except for Siamese markings. Those specifically listed are: White; Black; Chocolate; Lilac; Red Self; Blue; Cream; Silver Tabby (ten variants)(Classic and Mackerel) ; Red Tabby (Classic and Mackerel); Brown Tabby (nine variants) (Classic and Mackerel); Tortie; Chocolate Tortie; Lilac Tortie; Tortie and White; Blue Tortie and White; Chocolate Tortie and White; Lilac Tortie and White; Blue-Cream; Brown Spotted (ten variants); Silver Spotted (ten variants); Black and White Bi-colour (six variants); Black Smoke and White (ten variants); Brown Tabby and White (ten variants); Silver Tabby and White (ten variants); Black Smoke (ten variants); Black Tipped (ten variants).

CFA: All colours are permitted (except those involving chocolate, lavender or the Himalayan pattern). Specifically listed as accepted colours are: White, Black, Blue, Red, Cream, Chinchilla Silver; Shaded Silver; Black Smoke; Blue Smoke; Classic Tabby Pattern; Mackerel Tabby Pattern; Patched Tabby Pattern; Brown Patched Tabby; Blue Patched Tabby; Silver Patched Tabby; Silver Tabby; Red Tabby; Brown Tabby; Blue Tabby; Cream Tabby; Tortie; Calico; Dilute Calico; Blue-Cream; Bi-color

Bibliography:

1961. Todd, N.B. The Inheritance of Taillessness in Manx Cats. In: Journal of Heredity, 52, p.228-232.

1964. Kerruish, D.W. The Manx Cat. Kerruish, Douglas, Isle of Man.

1964. Todd, N.B. The Manx Factor in Domestic Cats. in: Journal of Heredity, 55, p.225-230.

1979. Hellman, J. The Manx Cat. In: The Manx Cat, 6, No. 11, p.15-19.

1987. Swantek, M. The Manx Cat. TFH, New Jersey.

1991. Hartman, J. Memories of Manx Cats. Hart-Manx Cattery.

Breed Clubs:

American Manx Club. Address: P.O.Box 15053, Colorado Springs, CO 80935-5053, USA.

International Manx and Cymric Society. 254 S. Douglas, Bradley, IL 60915, USA.

Note: There is also a breed publication: Manx Lines. Address: 19324 2nd Avenue, N.W. Seattle, WA 98177, USA.