Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/curly-haired-cats/

I might be biased, but cats are the CUTEST! They have so many adorable features like their little pink toe beans, their cute button noses, those tiny mouths, and of course, their soft and silky fur.

In fact, cats are quite fussy when it comes to their fur. They’re always meticulously grooming themselves in order to stay looking sharp.

We’re so used to seeing cats with perfectly straight fur, that we never think that there could actually be curly-haired cats. But surprisingly, there is a very rare subset of cats who actually have naturally curly fur which is described as looking sheep-like.

The cat breed is known as the Selkirk Rex, a breed that first appeared in 1987 in Montana, US, after one was born to a rescue cat. The curly-haired kitten then when on to live with breeder, Jeri Newman. Jeri ended up naming the kitten Miss DePesto, after the character featured in the TV series, Moonlighting.

From there, Jeri decided to use Miss DePesto to create a new breed of cats that come in two variations: long-haired and short-haired. Miss DePesto soon became the dominant breeder of the new Selkirk Rex, which Jeri had named after stepfather. That also makes the Selkirk Rex the first cat breed to be named for a human.

The Selkirk Rex is usually compared to the LaPerm breeds, but it should be known that the distinguishing feature is that the Selkirk’s coat is much thicker and plushier than those of the LaPerm.

While the Selkirk might be rare, they are slowly gaining more and more popularity, especially now thanks to social media. One cat breeder from Switzerland, Eleonora Muccio, shared that she immediately fell in love with the breed while at an expo in Geneva.

Eleonora quickly got herself her own Selkirk, Gina, in December of 2017. She soon set up Gina with her own Instagram account where she has gained a number of followers showcasing her beloved feline which she has described as being “very agile, curious, talkative and cuddly.”

Eleonora certainly enjoys the breed and has been breeding Selkirks for a while. According to Tyla, she stated that their fur is quite fine, but warns that the cat breed tends to shed a lot during the summer months because of the heat. She has also added that they are more prone to earwax and rheum than other cat breeds.

She said, “For that they need special care, I clean their eyes and ears once a week. But you have to pay attention you don’t do it too much as they can get an infection.”

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog