The Whimsical History of the Sphynx

Hairlessness in cats is a trait that has been documented for almost two centuries, and mentions of hairless felines can be tracked back as far as the Victorian Era! But to get a clear picture of how these historical cats shaped the Sphynx breed that we know and adore today, we first need to take a look at the other breeds of hairless cats that exist today, and make a distinction between the random mutations that cause hairlessness in cats.

In Sphynx cats, the mutation in the KRT71 gene that causes their hairlessness is recessive, so not all cats born with the gene are hairless — some may only be carriers and can pass it on to their children. The gene mutation essentially makes the hair follicles too weak to support a long coat, so the hair only grows to a light peach fuzz. You have to be very careful with Sphynx cats: you will often see bald spots that occur because they grazed themselves, rubbed too hard on something, scratched too much or even over-groomed themselves. This is nothing to concern yourself about, but it can be very startling if your beloved Sphynx suddenly has bald patches you did not expect! This is also why the modern Sphynx cat lacks whiskers.

All modern Sphynx cats today can officially be traced back to a group of cats from Minnesota and a group from Toronto, bred together and with some Devon Rex cats for health and genetic diversity, to create the stable breed we have today. But because this hairless mutation is random and not specific to any one breed of cat, I have scoured the internet and found that there were a number of little hairless wonders running around throughout history — much to the delight of the humans who encountered them!

Let's take a look at the other hairless or very short-haired cat breeds first, so that there is no confusion between the Sphynx and these other hairless cat breeds.

Honorable Mention: the Experimental Breeds

These breeds are not truly Sphynx, but rather mixes with other breeds, and are not typically recognized as official breeds by most major registries worldwide. They also tend to be controversial and may present unique health concerns.

The first written accounts of hairless cats date back to the 1830s, from the book Natural History of the Mammals of Paraguay by Dr. J.R. Rengger, regarding the Paraguayan "scant-haired cat" as he named them at the time. This was a colony of hairless cats that the author surmised was a natural adaptation of housecats to the climate of the area. What is interesting as we follow the timeline of hairless felines is that hairlessness usually shows up in tiny numbers, with failures to reproduce the trait effectively at various stages throughout history. The notion that at one time there was a noticeable number of hairless cats running around an island, even briefly, is an exciting prospect — however, very little is known of these cats, so for now they deserve a mention as the start of our timeline.

The first detailed report of hairless cats is an article in the Boston Post of January 22, 1878 — titled Poor Puss. These cats were entered into the first cat show held in Boston and provided quite the bit of charm and novelty. Early cat shows had both cats of impeccable breeding and pedigree on show, as well as cats displayed as curiosities due to various interesting traits — at one point there was even a fascination with cats that had survived shipwrecks! The original two hairless cats, named Scud (male) and Mystery (female), were one such curiosity display, reported as being born to a normal "Maltese" cat (a grey domestic shorthair). They were neglected by their mother, hand-raised, and reported to have many strange habits not commonly associated with cats at the time. (Sounds very much like the first two Sphynx to me!)

"We were shown yesterday a strange freak of nature in the shape of a hairless cat — or part dog and part cat, as really seems to be the case. The monstrosity very much resembles a hairless Mexican dog, but is cat shaped and is as playful as kittens in general… It was one of a litter of five kittens now four weeks old. The other kittens have hair and are natural in appearance and hardly half as large as their strange sister. The nondescript is not only large and stronger than the other four kittens but it is smarter and particularly full of life."
— The Wilmington Messenger, 1893

Somewhere between 1893 and 1895, two hairless cats were born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They were named Nelly and Dick, and were rumored to have been a gift to Mr. and Mrs. Shinick from the local Pueblo Indians — but this version of their story, and the naming of the "breed" as the Mexican Hairless (or even the New Mexico Hairless), just does not have enough evidence to be true. No other accounts of these Mexican Hairless cats prior to the littermates Nelly and Dick were ever found, and it is highly unlikely that these cats were the last survivors of an ancient Aztec breed as their owners claimed. Sadly, Dick was killed by dogs before the age of sexual maturity in a totally avoidable accident, and a suitable mate for Nelly was never found.

These early hairless cats were photographed at the 1898 Chicago cat show, and from the photo and their descriptions they do resemble the modern Sphynx with a less extreme face shape. They were noted to be 25% smaller than the local shorthair cats, normally whiskered and seasonally coated — growing a ridge of fur down their backs and tails during the colder seasons. The photo of Nelly and Dick was used in the 1903 The Book of the Cat, accompanied by a letter from their owner, Mr. Shinick, describing their temperament and the feel of their coats — all extremely similar to what one would expect from modern-day Sphynx cats. Nelly was never bred, and was possibly exported to Britain or continental Europe in 1903, where she was exhibited but apparently never bred. As pets in the 1900s were not spayed, there is a (remote) possibility that some later accounts of hairlessness trace back to Nelly.

The Albuquerque Journal of 17 December 1908 detailed Nellie's planned train journey to Washington to meet the President and First Lady, and then to New York for the annual cat show at Madison Square Garden, in the care of well-known cat enthusiast Dr. Cecil French. It was to be Nellie's last journey. A follow-up article from 29 December 1908 tells us she was bred and raised by Mr. Shinick (an admission of her origin at last, despite her lifelong tales of being some near-mythical extinct breed of Aztec cat!) and had been unwell when she left Albuquerque, dying the day after reaching Washington. The immediate cause of death was dropsy (wet FIP), but her spleen, liver, kidneys and uterus were all found to be diseased. Her body was donated to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., and although briefly misplaced, has been reunited with her information once more: Nelly the Mexican Hairless Cat — the Smithsonian.

In 1903, the book Rabbits, Cats and Cavies was published by C.H. Lane, with a section on the "Mexican Hairless" cat. The author was aware of Shinick's cats and reported that he found one in England — further cementing the truth that these cats were not descendants of some ancient extinct Aztec cats after all. The cat was named Jesuit and belonged to a Mrs. McLaren Morrison, known to be a collector of exotic cats and dogs. The illustration the author included of Jesuit looks very similar to the photo of Nelly, and it is suspected that the artist used the photo of Mr. Shinick's cats as a reference. Although this cat was regarded as a special breed of hairless cat, it is now understood that these three cats were merely another example of the random hairless mutation.

Numerous hairless cats were reported in the 1930s in various cat magazines, and some made headlines at cat shows — including accounts of hairlessness in Persian kittens. These cats were all considered prized curiosities and were found all over the world, now that photographs were more common and the cat fancy was taking an interest in hairless cats as a possible breed to be cultivated.

Hairless kittens ("Bald Cats") appeared in France in 1932 but failed to thrive. In April 1935, the magazine Vie à la Campagne (Life in the Country) carried pictures from a 1932 cat show in Paris featuring two hairless cats called "le chat nu" (the naked cat), shown as curiosities by Professor E. Letard. The naked cats had been born to two different domestic females in the same household at Kremlin-Bicêtre, near Paris, in 1930, though both died without reproducing in 1931. The cats had been born four months apart and were exhibited at the Feline Exposition in Paris — suggesting a degree of inbreeding allowing a recessive gene to be expressed. The French Sphynx (Le Chat Nu) never became an established breed in its own right.

Vie à la Campagne also reported a hairless kitten born to a shorthair female in Fez, Morocco, as well as occasional sightings of hairless cats in parts of Western Europe. The Moroccan hairless cat was born on 7 April 1934 at the home of Monsieur Paul Raibaud. Among five perfect kittens was a curious one with long ears, large bright eyes and no fur or whiskers. M. Raibaud took in the hairless kitten and it developed normally — at the time of the account in 1935 it was a grey-blue colour like slate, with soft, supple skin, normal teeth and claws, active and healthy.

In 1937, the Oxford Journal of Heredity published an article by Henry Sternberger titled A "Cat-Dog" From North Carolina: Hairless Gene or "Maternal Impression"?

Around the middle of August, 1936, a curious litter of kittens was born to a perfectly ordinary appearing pet cat belonging to Mrs. Annie Mae Gannon of Wilmington, N.C. Of the entire litter only one of the kittens is perfectly normal in appearance — the other three being freaks. One of the cats has no tail at all; another has only a stub of a tail. But the extraordinary member of this feline family is the fourth — well, we can hardly call it a cat — so for want of a better name, we'll call it a "Nonesuch."… From the very moment of its birth, which was about twelve hours after the rest of the litter, the nonesuch was surprisingly independent in its actions. It was born with its eyes open, and was able to crawl a little — two characteristics quite unknown to new-born kittens. While it makes a noise like a cat, it sniffs its food like a dog. Nothing delights the nonesuch more than gnawing a bone in a very dog-like manner.

The Editor replied that geneticists would be more inclined to ascribe the unusual animal to the action of a recessive mutation than to the ancient doctrine of "maternal impressions" — noting that Nonesuch closely resembled the Rex rabbit. It was hoped the cat could be obtained and tested genetically, but the owner reportedly felt this unusual creature would be so valuable for museum or sideshow purposes as to put it out of range of genetic experimentation. Sadly, all the other members of the litter died, leaving little more than the record of this odd form.

In 1938, French Professor Etienne Letard (of the National Veterinary School of Alfort, France) replied in the Journal of Heredity with a letter titled Hairless Siamese Cats. A pair of Siamese cats, perfect in type with normal hair and coloring, produced from time to time one or two hairless kittens in otherwise normal litters. From these periodically appearing hairless individuals, he was able to create a strain of hairless cats believed to be entirely pure.

If one mates one of the two individuals who have produced this mutation with other normal Siamese cats, a hairless kitten has never been produced. Only the mating of the two individuals in question produces the mutation… We have mated two hairless cats, brother and sister; three hairless kittens were the result. The "hairless" can therefore be considered a type governed by the Mendelian law, with hairlessness recessive to normal coat. Thus we find ourselves in possession of a strain, apparently already stable, which might be the origin of a distinct race, resuscitating the ancient race of so-called Mexican hairless cats, which is believed to be extinct.

Strange as it may seem, the young ones which grew into hairless cats were not hairless at birth, but had a growth of hair, less dense than normal, which disappeared between the tenth and fourteenth day. The skin remained bald for several days, followed by another transitory coat; by the age of six months the final stage of adult nakedness was reached — either completely hairless, or covered with a slight down subject to seasonal changes.

The interesting part of this article is that when we think of hairless traits and recessive genes in cats, it is usually the Toronto-based breeders of the 1960s and 70s who are credited with identifying them. But from these Oxford Journals, it is clear that these traits were already understood in the 1930s! There are quite a few sources referencing this French breeding program, however it seems the gene pool was just not diverse enough, and it ultimately succumbed to the same fate as many later projects — not resulting in a stable, sustainable breed at that time.

Looking at all of these early hairless cats, I find it fascinating that the same trait that fascinates so many feline enthusiasts in the modern-day cat fancy has been showing up naturally for over two centuries, without any intervention of humans at all! But I am so very thankful to these early breeders who laid down the foundation on which my beloved Sphynx cats of today were built.

It was not until the breeders of the late 60s and 70s really started to get together and work on establishing a viable gene pool that the Sphynx cat breed truly began to develop. Many of these breeding programs still failed — the beautiful hairless Sphynx that we have today did not happen overnight!

A couple called the Murrays from California obtained a hairless male cat called Silky (born to normal Siamese parents) and bred him to a normal Siamese female, producing a litter of hairless babies with stubby whiskers and wrinkly skin. The Murrays named this new breed the Mooncat and started Moonglow cattery. In 1966, Murray told the Independent Press Telegram that these cats had been part of ancient Chinese civilization — and of course there was the earlier story of hairless cats coming from the ancient Aztecs, invented by Mr. Shinick. These wild stories helped embellish the background of these amazing little cats, making them even more exclusive at the time. But because of them, the true background of the real Sphynx breed is a little harder to find, and you will still hear people believe these wild stories today!

The "Egyptian Hairless Cat" was invented around 2001 by the TV show Friends and mistakenly reported as fact on some veterinary websites. The show depicted it as hypoallergenic — but hairless cats are not hypoallergenic, since the allergen is in the saliva and dander, not the fur. It was irresponsible of the show to mislead viewers into the hypoallergenic myth, as well as creating belief in a non-existent "breed". Although the name "Sphynx" might suggest an Egyptian origin, there are no hairless varieties originating from Egypt.

The modern Sphynx (Canadian Hairless) derives from Canadian cats of the 1960s and 70s. It has variously been known as the Moon Cat, Moonstone Cat or Canadian Hairless, and may be spelled either Sphynx or Sphinx. The history of the Canadian Sphynx is not continuous, as the original bloodline was lost — the breeding program was restored when more hairless kittens surfaced later.

Also in 1966, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, a domestic cat named Elizabeth produced a hairless male kitten named Prune. These two cats were acquired by Ridyadh Bawa, a science graduate of the University of Toronto, and his mother Yania, a longtime Siamese breeder, who were eager to develop this remarkable breed. Keese and Rita Tenhove joined the Bawas in breeding these hairless cats, called "Moonstone cats" at this stage in history.

"Hairless cats for owners with allergies may soon be available," says Riyadh Bawa, owner of a hairless tomcat named Prune… "The cats must remain hairless for seven generations to be recognized as a breed."
— The Ottawa Journal, 20 August 1966, "WHAT'S NUDE, PUSSYCAT?"

Breeding Prune with another normally-haired cat did not produce any hairless kittens — but breeding Prune back to his mother resulted in 16 normal kittens and 18 hairless kittens. This is the point in history where the breed finally got its official name: the Sphynx, sometimes referred to as the Canadian Sphynx. The breed was given provisional showing status through the Cat Fanciers' Association — revoked in 1971, however, as the CFA Board had concerns over fertility. The breeding program ultimately failed, and the Sphynx gene pool proved not to be of viable size at the time. The last two remaining kittens from Prune's line were exported to a breeder in the Netherlands, Dr. Hugo Hernandez, who also could not breed viable Sphynx from the existing pool — and it was decided to use Devon Rex to further develop the breed, as Devon Rex sometimes occur with sparse fur. A 2010 DNA analysis found that the Devon Rex and Sphynx are in fact alleles of the same gene.

Around this same time, a hairless cat called Sylvester was found in Australia. Although totally hairless, she did not produce any hairless kittens and did not contribute to the breeding program.

In 1975, in Wadena, Minnesota, a random stray cat wandered up to Milt Pearson while he was fishing one day. He named the cat Jezebelle and took her in to live with the many other barn cats on his farm. Jezebelle gave birth to a hairless female kitten called Epidermis in 1975, and another hairless female called Dermis in 1976. Milt and Ethelyn Pearson thought their hairless cats particularly special and sent a photo and description to the University Farm at St. Paul — but were told to get rid of them, as they were "feral" and would ruin all the neighbourhood cats. The Pearsons could not let the hairless kittens go; they had shown themselves to be quite affectionate pets. They later enquired about showing a cat and were promptly told their "feral" cats would not be allowed — that they were an example of what not to save in a cat breed. The Pearsons' cats were allowed to breed freely, and a number of hairless kittens were born over several litters — at one time, the Pearsons had 14 hairless cats!

The Pearsons and their cats appeared in local newspapers and were local celebrities for a time, unaware that there were breeders in the cat fancy who could not wait to get their hands on one of these hairless kittens. In a January 2012 article in the Wadena Pioneer Journal titled "Prestigious Sphynx cats once considered 'feral' breed", Mrs. Pearson recalled that one day a lady showed up at the farm asking about the hairless cats. Asked if she would sell them, Mrs. Pearson picked a random number she thought totally outrageous — and without hesitation, the lady whipped out her chequebook. Dermis and Epidermis were sold to Kim Mueske for the combined amount of $200 and became an important part of the Sphynx breeding program. Because so many of the hairless cats up to that time had been male, these two ladies were pivotal in expanding the Sphynx gene pool. Also working with the Pearson line was breeder Georgiana Gattenby of Brainerd, Minnesota, who outcrossed with Cornish Rex cats.

In 1978, cat breeder Shirley Smith found three hairless kittens on the streets of her neighbourhood in Toronto and named them Bambi, Punkie and Paloma. In 1983, she sent two of them to Dr. Hugo Hernandez in the Netherlands to be bred to a white Devon Rex named Curare van Jetrophin. The resulting litter produced five kittens, and two males from this litter (Q. Ramses and Q. Ra) were used in the breeding program, along with Punkie's half-sister Paloma.

During the next decades, the Sphynx developed a deeper gene pool through selective outcrossing with the Devon Rex and American Shorthair, under the loving dedication of multiple breeders across the world. The breed continued to gain popularity among cat fanciers in the 1990s, gained acceptance in the ACFA championship class in 1994, was officially accepted for registration by the CFA in 1998, and advanced to championship status there in 2002 — quickly followed by the other cat fanciers' associations across the world.

In 1997, the Sphynx captured the hearts and imaginations of millions when SGC Belfry's Ted Nude Gent (Michelle Berge, California) was cast as Mr. Bigglesworth in the Hollywood motion picture Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. In the same year, cats from the Rinkurl cattery were used as models for the cover of Aerosmith's rock album Nine Lives.

Today, there are many breeders worldwide who are still captivated by the unique beauty, playful mischief and adoring personalities of the Sphynx, and who have dedicated their lives to the preservation and betterment of this spectacular breed.

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