Selkirk Rex

coat settles down and becomes closer to its maturestage. Even during this intermediate stage. the coatshould exhibit some curl around the neck and onthe tummy From one year of age on. the coatbecomes curlier and softerA mature male or spayed female will have the bestcoat In the best examples, the curling is strongeston the flanks, tummy and around the neck, withsome curl on the back The hair on the back seemsto be the most difficult with the least amount ofcurl, regardless of the softness of the rest of thecoat A mature female, however, can at timesappear either curly or nearly straight, depending onthe state of her hormones While in heat, pregnantor lactating, a female's coat looks nearly straight,between heats, the coat curls to its regular stateLook for a coat that is not too soft or too hard, butthick Remember that the coat of a growing Selkirkmay not be much like the coat that he will have asan adult ( M Jones, 2002)The whiskers are the second most noticeable char-,Ictenstic More than one Selkirk Rex exhibitor hasbeen asked why they cut off the whiskers Before anewborn Selkirk is even dry, it can be classified aseither curly or straight by its whiskers CurlySelkirks have curly whiskers at birth Even if the:oat appears nearly straight later on, the cat has thecurly gene and retains the curly whiskers If thehiskers are straight, the cat is also a straight-hairedand v% ill never pass on the curly gene The whiskerson a Selkirk can be described as short, curly andSparse Because the whiskers are curly and brittle,:hey break ofT when they get too long, even though.: long one is occasionally visible The w hiskers do'lot change as the cat grows older, if the whiskers.ire curly at birth, they will he curly as an adultLook for Roundest head and broadest muzzle.tv ailable. prominent whisker pads (as opposed to..mitly rounded), round eyes with level-set, plushycurls in the shorthairs and long, loose curls in the.onghairsv oid Flat heads, shanty eyes, narrow muzzles,-.,Lrd coats, light boning, small size, short and,obby bodies, tiny ears, short tails or cats with asoak above the eyesI fomozygous "Curlies" The Selkirk Rex gene istrue dominant in that approximately 25% of thesmells produced in Selkirk-to-Selkirk breedings.:re homozygous curlies The homozygous kittenslook like their heterozygous. non-curly siblings.:nil approximately three weeks of age At that-vim. these cats appear difTerent with angular,'inched faces, large ears, sparse coat (includingor loss) and pear-shaped bodies Kittens borna homozygous cat will all be curly. A.0inozygous cat is born when a curly is bred with.1 curly. At this time in our history, the recommenlinonremains not to breed a homozygous catith another homozygous cat (remember the detimtionof homozygous is different from curly) Thesdkirks have a limited amount of time for out-,rossing (2010 for Persians and Exotics and 2015•or British Shorthairs) There is nothing more-mportant than the health of the breed and the.Apansion of the gene pool is imperativeThe cats that are homozygous for the curly coatfactor have a sparser, tighter coat than those whoonly have one Selkirk parent. Right now, it appearsthat the heterozygous cats most closely fit our standard,but the homozygous cats are very valuable toour breeding programs as every kitten produced bythem will be curlyThe Selkirk Rex genetic factor does not appear tobe debilitating in homozygous form However,some transient problems have been seen in a fewhomozygous cats, most probably due to breedingtoo closely on the original cats, rather than becauseof the nature of the genetic mutationAt this time, outcrossing is our primary focus: tohelp build the foundation gene pool upon whichour breed will depend in the futureBreeding Selkirks means attention to the basicsInterest in colors and patterns are secondary to thebasics "I would like to see a row of Selkirks at ashow with bodies, heads, and coats that lookstamped out of the same cookie cutter before westart focusing on what strange new colors we cancreate " (Shelton, 1994)Oaktree's SocratesFlow many Selkirk breeders became involvedbecause of "Socrates" (a red, longhair, patient boywho looks like the Cowardly Lion) and his owner,Nancy McMullen" The answer is most of usCertainly this was the scenario for myself I wasaway on a business trip in 1996 and trying to connectwith home, when I bought a CATS USA magazineI was thoroughly entertained by studyingeach picture but was overwhelmed with envy whenI saw this red curly cat, "Socrates " Since then. Ihave discovered that many had the same conversionexperience. Socrates was used on the firstSelkirk Rex breed pamphlet, inspiring many Theonly problem w as that there was only one SocratesFinding my first Selkirk on the East coast was achallenge. My experience is duplicated in thewords of Stephanie Zabel In the following quote,Stephanie visits a cat show for the first time hopingto become a breeder"You would never believe the negatix cresponse that I got at that shom, in regard tomy cat! I believe that a less determined personwould have been crushed by this Thelight at the end of the tunnel was a womanshowing a big red curly cat There was such acrowd around her that we couldn't even get ina peck, the bit I overheard her say was thatPersians were being used in the breeding programMy friend and I made a point to keepcruising that area until the woman was freeThat woman was Nancy McMullen and thatbig red curly cat was Oaktree's Socrates Iwas totally intrigued' I asked Nancy for moreinformation and she found me a chair andtalked to me at length about her cats, thebreeding program and the possibility of mybreeding Selkirks" (Zabel. 1995) Jeri is theoriginator, but for the Selkirk breeders,Nancy is the queen.iliimmers Men. Cheerio. a brosut Intl( Aerei tabbh longhairfemale Br/011 Fred WernerGC ,Nate Wind Tsunami 01 !keno, kart a blue :ream longiumfemale CFA's ?hi Best of Breed. 2001 Br Ilan Jones O.1) Kalb:tele, J Newnan and IN JonesGC. BW Panuus Winme The Blue. is blue shorthair male TheNorths, est &TIM,. 2nd Best of Breed. 2002 Also CFA's andthe North:1,es! Region's Best it1 Breed. 200/ Br PamelaSharp Os, Pamela Sharp and n BassGP Calumet Toni Home Perm, a tortoiseshell longhair spa,Br/0,, (\nano I Sinker95