Chartreux
French, blue coated, and the coat is woolly rather than silky, breaking in ripples. Famously quiet: many Chartreux barely make a sound at all.
Overview
The Chartreux is a blue French cat with a woolly, water repellent double coat and a face that appears to be smiling. It is an old breed with a long French history, nearly lost in the World Wars and rebuilt afterwards.
The coat is its defining physical feature: dense enough to break when the cat moves, and genuinely resistant to water in a way that most cat coats are not.
Temperament
Remarkably quiet. Many Chartreux barely vocalise at all, and those that do produce a small chirp rather than a meow, which is startling in a cat this size.
They are affectionate, calm and observant, attaching to one or two people and following them about quietly. They are patient with children and slow to complain, which means their discomfort has to be looked for rather than heard.
Care and grooming
The double coat should be combed rather than brushed, weekly, and daily through the moult, because the undercoat is heavy and it comes out in sheets.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is among the conditions reported in the breed, and patellar luxation has also been noted. Cardiac screening in the parents is the question to ask.
Living and exercise
A calm indoor household. They are moderately active, decent hunters, and content to be quiet company.
They are slow to mature, taking two to three years, and they run to a solid build, so weight is worth watching. Eleven to fifteen years is usual.
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