Asian Cats (including Burmilla Cats)

History

This breed was created by accident, when two lovers (cats) were stopped from seeing each other. A Chinchilla cat male lived in the same house as a female Lilac Burmese; as kittens they would play together, but when the female began to show signs of coming in to call, she was isolated until she could be taken to her pre-arranged Burmese male. The cleaner had left the study door open and allowed the Chinchilla access to the female. The resulting kittens were attractive that the owner wanted to give them a special name, and called them Burmillas.

There was no problem in finding new homes for these little cross-bred kittens; indeed, there was more interest in them than the pure-bred Burmese kittens, and so a repeat mating was made. This was the beginning of what is now an popular breed and explains how they got their name.

Character and Temperament

The Burmilla cat is outgoing, friendly and sociable, and has inherited slightly modified characteristics from both of the original parents; it is not as noisy or demanding as the Burmese but is more adventurous and inquisitive than the Chinchilla cats. For anyone who likes the Burmese, but could not cope with the continual demands made by it, then perhaps a Burmilla is the ideal compromise.

Type and Standard of Points

A breeding plan was developed to keep the breed alive; it was decided that the Burmilla cat should, ideally, be a shorthaired cat of Burmese type but displaying certain traits from the Chinchilla: these include the tipped pattern coat, red nose and black outline around the eyes.

To preserve the type, the first generation Burmillas were mated back to Burmese. This next generation gave rise to several different types of Burmilla related cat, and at this point it was decided to use the term Asian Group to apply to all the genetic possibilities associated with this breed. This includes not just Burmillas which my be shaded or tipped, but also the self shorthair - known as a Bombay if it is Black, and an Asian if it is any other colour - the longhair version, or Tiffanie, and four versions of Asian Tabby - Spotted, Classic, Mackerel and Ticked.

In the USA, the term Bombay refers to a Black Burmese that has resulted from a cross between a Burmese and a Black American Shorthaired cat; the Tiffany was the result of an original cross between a Burmese cat and a Self Longhair.