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Abyssinian

The Abyssinian is a very elegant and active shorthaired cat. It is medium in size.
The body and the legs build more or less a square. The body is very muscular and stands on sinewy slender legs.
The tail is rather long ending in a rounded tip, i.e. the tail does not taper like in the Siamese.

The shape of the head is a short modified wedge, all edges and contours are soft and gently formed.
What does 'modified' mean? When viewing the head from the front or in profile, no straight lines and edges and no flat planes shall be seen. The forehead is gently rounded, the muzzle is gently rounded, that means the head does not give any impression of being pointed. When viewing the head in profile, the wedge is rather short, the nose shows a gentle convex curve, and the profile is not straight.
The ears are rather large and wide at the base. When viewed in profile, the ears are slightly tilted forward, called pricked, which gives the cat a certain expression of being alert.
The eyes are large and almond in shape, they are very brilliant, one gets caught by these eyes.

The most characteristic and important part of the Abyssinian is its coat, which has a bright base color in non-silver colors, and each single hair is ticked on the upper side of the body. That means, each hair has alternating agouti-bands of the base color and the darker color of the ticking, the tips of the hairs are colored in the darker color of the ticking. It is the ticking, which gives the impression of a wild color, as one can see for example in rabbits or deer. The lower parts of the body (chest, belly, inner side of the legs) are not ticked.
The coat is very short and close lying to the body. Despite this short coat one can see the ticking very clearly.

In the face it can still be seen that the Abyssinian is a tabby cat (called ticked tabby), as the typical tabby pattern like the "M" on the forehead and the eye rims are present.  All other parts, like the neck, the flanks, the legs and the tail are not permitted to show any stripes or to be ringed. The best part, where the color of the ticking can be clearly seen, is the tip of the tail, which has a solid color.

Colors

In the ruddy Abyssinian the base color is a striking orange, the hairs are ticked in a dark seal-brown. Ruddy Abyssinians are genetically black cats, the brilliant copper-orange coat color is caused by rufism, which was enhanced by careful and selective breeding through many years.
Seal is a color like bitter chocolate, an extremely dark brown color.
Rufism - the coat has a reddish color tone - caused by polygenes.

In the sorrel Abyssinian the base color is apricot, the hairs are ticked in chocolate.
In some organizations this color is called "red", but the color is not based genetically on the red color caused by the gene "Orange". Sorrel is caused by "bl", an allele of the gene "B" (black), and is called cinnamon in genetic terms.

In the blue Abyssinian the base color is blue-grey with a beige colored basis. The hairs are ticked in dark steal-blue. Chest, belly, and the inner side of the legs are beige and do not show any ticking.

In the fawn Abyssinian the base color is beige (cream) with a very pale cream basis. The hairs are ticked in dark cream. Chest, belly, and the inner side of the legs have a very pale beige color and do not show any ticking.
The color is very rare and gives a certain dull impression, it is a color for the expert.

All these colors may be also with silver. The base color is almost white (called silver-white).
In the black silver Abyssinian the base color is silver-white, the hairs are ticked in black. It is extremely difficult in this color to avoid the yellow tinge in the coat (mainly to be noticed in the face, on the back and the front legs), which is caused by too much rufism. Chest, belly, and the inner side of the legs are silver-white and do not show any ticking or darker patches.

Origin

The Abyssinian is one of the oldest cat breeds and is very popular. Many believe that the origin can be traced back to the cats, which can be seen in paintings and sculptures in Bubastis of Ancient Egypt. Thousands of mummies had been found in the ancient tombs. The Egyptians worshipped the cat as goddess, because the cat saved their corn storages from rats and mice. Analyzes of cat mummies had shown two different types of cats: the African Gold cat and the Felis Chaus.

It is said that in 1868 Mrs. Captain Barrett Leonard brought a cat, named Zula, from the Abyssinian wars (Ethiopia) back to England. The names given to the breed were quite different, like Abyssinian (not, because they came from Ethiopia, but because they were brought from the Abyssinian wars), Hare-cat or rabbit-cat, because its coat was very similar to the wild coat of rabbits.
In December 1871 the Abyssinian was exhibited in Crystal Palace and won the 3rd place, as published in Harper's Weekly (on 27.01.1872). In 1874 a lithography of the Abyssinian was published in Gordon Stable's book 'Cats, Their Points, and Characteristics'.

In 1889 the color is called "dark brown, black ticked, which resembles the color of the back of a wild rabbit (but not so grey)". The color of the ruddy Abyssinian is still called 'lièvre' in France.

All the other colors existed already quite early in this breed, like the so called red Abyssinian, which is already mentioned in 1887.

Already in 1917 the first Abyssinians were registered in CFA. About 1930 the first top-quality Abyssinians were imported from England to North America.

In 1929 the Abyssinian was recognized in France.

Genetics

The coat pattern is caused by the gene T^a, called ticked tabby.
The rings on the neck, the fine stripes on the legs and the rings on the tail were eliminated by intensive selective breeding.