Balinese
A longhaired Siamese under another name, points and all, and nothing to do with Bali. It has the Siamese voice too, though it uses it a little less.
Photo by Mike McBey, CC BY 2.0
Overview
The Balinese is a longhaired Siamese, and nothing more complicated than that. Longhaired kittens appeared in Siamese litters, breeders in the United States chose to develop them rather than place them as pets, and the breed was named for the dancers of Bali because the name Longhaired Siamese was resisted.
The coat is single, with no undercoat, so it lies flat against the body and gives a fine silky line rather than the volume a Persian has.
Temperament
Siamese, entirely. Vocal, opinionated, intensely attached and extremely intelligent, and if that sounds like a lot it is because it is.
A Balinese talks. It talks when you come in, when you leave, and when it has an opinion about the arrangement of the room. It is also one of the most trainable cats there is, and it will learn to fetch, walk on a lead and open doors, in roughly that order.
Care and grooming
Far easier than it looks. A single coat with no undercoat rarely mats, and a comb through twice a week keeps it right.
The pointed breeds share a group of inherited conditions worth asking about, including progressive retinal atrophy in the rdAc form, which has a DNA test. Dental disease is also common in the oriental type breeds and is worth staying ahead of.
Living and exercise
Company is the requirement. A Balinese left alone all day is unhappy and says so, and two cats is often kinder than one.
They are climbers and they use every shelf in the house. Twelve to twenty years is a wide but honest range for the pointed breeds.
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