Siamese
The dark points are temperature driven: colour develops only where the body runs cooler, which is why the kittens are born white. Loud, and it expects an answer.
Photo by Rick Truter, CC BY 2.0
Overview
The Siamese is the cat everything else on this shelf borrows from. It came from Siam, now Thailand, appeared in the West in the late nineteenth century, and its genes are behind the Balinese, Oriental, Colorpoint, Himalayan, Tonkinese, Havana Brown, Ocicat and Snowshoe.
The points are a temperature dependent enzyme. Pigment develops only where the body runs cool, which is why the extremities are dark, why kittens are born white, and why a Siamese in a cold house darkens over time.
Temperament
The loudest and most demanding cat commonly kept, and that is not a criticism, it is the specification. Siamese talk constantly, in a voice that carries, and they expect to be answered.
They bond intensely, often to one person, and they follow that person continuously. They are extremely intelligent, they open doors and cupboards, and they are among the most trainable cats there is. They are also genuinely poor at being alone.
Care and grooming
A weekly rub down and nothing else. The coat is the least of it.
The breed carries a real set of inherited concerns: progressive retinal atrophy in the rdAc form, which has a DNA test, amyloidosis affecting the liver in some lines, asthma at higher rates than most breeds, and a marked tendency to periodontal disease that wants managing from young.
Living and exercise
Company above everything. Two cats is frequently the kinder arrangement, and a household out for ten hours a day is a poor fit for this breed specifically.
They are lean and they feel the cold, so a warm spot matters. Twelve to twenty years is a wide range and both ends of it are real.
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