A photo of an orange cat with curly hair took across the Internet last week. The photo was captioned, “I’ve never seen a cat with curls till today.” Well, neither have the majority of us, but the curly hair on the kitten isn’t a ruse, and here’s why.
The Selkirk rex is most likely the breed of the cat that went viral last week, and its origins may be traced back to a strange rescue cat named Miss DePesto.
is DePesto was born in a Montana shelter in 1987. She had four siblings, each of which have straight coats, but the kitty stood out due to her unusually curly hair. She was adopted by Jeri Newman, a local Persian breeder.
She bred the cat with a black Persian and they produced a litter of six babies, all of them with curly hair. Newman realized that curly hair was a dominant genetic trait – and this is how the Selkirk rex was born.
Last week, the pictures of this orange kitten with curly hair went viral
People began to share images of cats with curly hair, commonly referred to as Selkirk Rex.
Its origins can be traced to one peculiar rescue cat named Miss DePesto
The curly kitty, who was born in a Montana shelter in 1987, had 4 siblings with straight hair
She was adopted by a breeder who realized her curly fur was a dominant genetic feature.
The woman mated it with a black Persian, and the result was a litter of six curly-haired puppies.
This is how the Selkirk Rex, a breed named after a woman’s stepfather, came to be.
She added the suffix ‘Rex’ to signify that the lovely coat was curly, a quality that many cat enthusiasts like.
