Norwegian Forest Cat
Built for a Norwegian winter: a water shedding topcoat over a woolly one. It climbs down trees head first, which most cats cannot manage.
Photo by DavideGorla, CC BY 2.0
Overview
The Norwegian Forest Cat is Norway's native breed, a large semi longhaired cat built for a Scandinavian winter, with a dense woolly undercoat under a water shedding topcoat and heavily furnished ears and feet.
It is also a genuinely capable climber, and unusually it can descend a tree head first, because the claws on the hind feet give it purchase going down as well as up.
Temperament
Independent, calm and friendly without being needy. Forest cats are affectionate with their families and self possessed about it, and they are not lap cats in the way a Ragdoll is.
They are patient with children and other animals, quiet, and slow to mature, taking up to five years to reach full size. They keep a strong hunting drive and they climb everything.
Care and grooming
A comb through twice a week and daily through the spring moult, when the undercoat comes out in quantity. The coat is more self maintaining than a Persian's but it is not maintenance free.
Three inherited conditions are worth asking about: glycogen storage disease type IV, which has a DNA test and is fatal in affected kittens, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and pyruvate kinase deficiency, which also has a test.
Living and exercise
Serious climbing structure and space. This is a large cat that wants height and will find it whether or not it is provided.
They do well with safe outdoor access and they cope with cold far better than most. Fourteen to sixteen years is the usual expectation.
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