The Story of the Scottish Fold

In the year 1961 a shepherd named William Ross saw a strange cat. The place was Scotland, near Coupar Angus. He passed the neighbours and playing in the yard was a white cat - with downturned ears. He mentioned the odd cat to his wife Mary. She immediately became curious.

The Ross' had an interest for cats. They owned a seal-point Siamese, taking a litter now and then. The neighbour was asked if they could have a kitten from the white cat, a kitten with folded ears. In 1963 the cat - now named Susie - gave birth to two kittens, a male and a white female. Both kittens had folded ears. The female got named Snooks and was given to the Ross' household.

Unfortunately Susie was killed by a car just after she's had the litter and the male kitten was neutered, so all modern Scottish Folds stem from Snooks. I call it modern, because the fold-ear gene has popped up now and then and as a matter of fact I've got a print myself from 1898 of a fold-eared cat called "Chinese Cat"!

On with the story... The local red tabby tom-cat casanova became father of Snooks first litter. A white male, Snowball, was born with folded ears. Snooks second litter was planned and the male used was a blue British Shorthair male, Ryeland Regal Gent. By now the year was 1969. Two kittens fold-eared was born: Denisla Hester and Denisla Hector. Snowball also became father of a litter with the white British Shorthair Lady May and in that litter was born five fold-eared cats. The cats mentioned here's the founding stock of the Fold. By the way "Denisla" was the breeding prefix the Ross', taken from two local rivers. Also the Folds at that time was called lop-eared cats.

Until 1971 the GCCF in England accepted the Scottish Fold for registration, but due to an argument about the folded ears they withdrew the registration rights and so it's still today. Luckily three cats were exported to America and there it's one of the most popular breeds. There's still a few enthusiastic Scottish Fold-breeders in England and you'll find a link to the "Pendlemist cattery" on the link-side. The Fold is steadily gaining popularity in Europe also, but it's not recognized in the FIFe. The Independent movement do recognize it, though.

Let's go back in time to 1967. That's the year that Ms. Pat Turner was contacted by the Ross'. Ms Turner, helped by a geneticist, found out how the fold-gene is inherited and it turns out to be a simple dominant. That is if a cat has the fold-gene it is fold. That means theoretically in a litter there's to be born 50 % folded eared cats and 50 % with normal ears (called "straights"). Also she noticed that the kittens are born with normal ears and those that turn fold do so at 3-4 weeks of age - a long wait for a breeder...

Another study made by a man named Jackson will always be discussed. His study showed that the fold-gene causes defects in the skeleton, especially the tail. This happened when he mated folded cats to folded cats. The point discussed about this fact is that the number of cats involved in the breeding program was very few and so in-breeding was done in a high degree. It's the only study of its kind, so no one therefore knows if the heavy in-breeding was the cause of the defects or if the fold-mutation really causes skeleton defects.

Anyway, to be sure to keep the breed healthy Scottish Fold breeders never mate fold to fold, but use either straight-eared fold cats or f. ex. British Shorthair to mate to their folded-eared male or female.

Worth to mention is that in one of the first litters a longhaired kitten was born, so the longhair-gene has been around from the beginning. And this leads to how a Scottish Fold should look. Well, it should look round! Round in head, round eyes, cuddly body. The fanciers says that it should be like an owl. Short nose with a little break, but absolutely not a stop. Fur quality is to be about like a British Shorthair. The longhairs should not have woolly fur, like a Persian Longhair, but a nice crisp quality just like the shorthairs.

The folding of the ears are normally graded in three steps. From the cat that only has a slight "tipping" of its ears, to the third grading of fold, where the ears lies totally flat against the head. And, by the way, the folded-eared cats hears just as excellently as other cats. (That is when they want to hear something!) One fun feature is that on females the ears can straighten themselves when they have kittens. It's not so fun for the breeder, though, if they don't fold down again after the kittens are grown, as can happen...

The temperament? Superb! An independet cat, that wants to be with you, but not on you. (If you have ever had a Siamese cat you know what I mean...) A pleasant companion, that nestle its way to the heart of the owner like no other breed. The Scottish Folds are very intelligent, but don't brag about it. It shows its mettle when the situation demands it, not before. Its voice is quite low, but how much it's "talking" to you is individual.