Meet the Ocicat

We Ocicats are a pretty new breed. Even though we look like ocelots– the spotted wildcat we get our name from – we have zero ocelot (or any other wildcat) DNA in our gene pool. The first Ocicat was just a happy accident! In 1964, a human named Virginia Daly was trying to create an Abyssinian-pointed Siamese. She bred a ruddy Abyssinian with a seal point Siamese, but the first-generation litter all looked Abyssinian. In the second generation, though, she achieved not only the Abyssinian-pointed Siamese she was aiming for, but also something far more impawtant: one of the kittens came out spotted! This kitten, named Tonga and called an “ocicat” by Daly’s daughter, was the first Ocicat in the world.

Tonga wasn’t used as part of an Ocicat breeding program – he was neutered and sold as a pet – but another human, a geneticist named Clyde Keeler, heard about Tonga and wanted to develop our breed. He contacted Daly, who bred my ancestor parents again and produced a spotted cat named Dalai Dotson. The breeding program continued and started to include the American Shorthair, which introduced silver coloring to our coats. Then word got around about the new, exotic beauties being bred, and it wasn’t long before the Cat Fanciers’ Association recognized our breed in 1966. It took them a long time to let us into the show ring, though – we weren’t given championship status until 1987. We were fully recognized by The International Cat Association for champion status in 1986, and the other major cat registries followed shortly thereafter.