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LaPerms
The original mutation, sprang from strong, healthy, domestic barn cats. The original cat was unique in-so-far as it lacked hair at birth, and the body type and temperament are as much a part of the breed, as is the Rex gene.
A barn cat gave birth to a litter of six, one of which was born completely bald, looking nothing like her mother or littermates. The kitten was the ugliest kitten in the world having no hair, large wide spaced ears and a blueprint pattern on her skin that mimicked a classic tabby pattern.
Within eight weeks the kitten began to grow very soft, curly hair. By about three to four months of age, the kitten now known as Curly had a full coat of curly hair. Not being very knowledgeable about cats, owner Linda Koehl accepted the mutant as unique and thought nothing more of the matter.
Curly gave birth in her first litter to 5 kittens, all male and all bald as Curly had been at birth. This intrigued Linda and she began to do research on cats thereby deciding she had had some sort of Rex mutation. Curly’s future litters provided only occasional hairless kittens of both sexes. Curly’s insistence at being an outdoor cat eventually led to her disappearance. Linda never found out what had become of her as she just stopped showing up for her morning visits. Curly left behind a number of kittens who had all inherited her soft, curly coat and lovely disposition.
During the next 10 years no attempt was made to breed selectively but as the frequency of bald kittens increased Linda began to seek additional information about unusual cats. Linda had no knowledge of genetics or breeding and thus she allowed them to roam free through the barns and orchard for several years.
As she became aware of how truly unique these cats were, Linda started to confine and control the breeding. It appeared that the curly gene was dominant and carried by both males and females. An occasional oops litter, led to enlarging the gene pool but at the same time maintained the same physical and personality characteristics."
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