Chantilly Tiffany Cat

The Chantilly Tiffany Cat is renowned for his elegant appearance and warm personality. The Tiffany Cat has a semi-foreign slender body and long silky coat. The coat comes in the following colors: chocolate, blue, cinnamon, fawn and lilac, either in solid or tabby permutations. These cats have distinctive ruffs on the neck and plumed tails. The coat does not have a thick undercoat, so it is not prone to matting. Chantilly Tiffany Cats do not shed very much. The preferred eye color is golden-yellow-amber.

Chantilly Tiffany Cats should not be mixed up with the Tiffanie – a British breed of cats, which was created by crossing a Burmese female with a Persian male. The Tiffany has pink paw pads and no points, which is absolutely untypical of the Burmese Cat. There were no Burmese Cats involved in breeding Tiffanys in the aftermath either.

The history of the Chantilly Tiffany Cat began in 1967, when Jennie Robinson of New York picked up a pair of chocolate cats with a little exotic appearance, both probably descending from the same parents (or at least one female). The female’s name was Shirley, and the male was named Thomas. They produced their first litter in 1969, which counted six kittens with similar appearance. This suggested a strong genetic background, so Jennie continued on with her breeding program. The ACA recognized the breed as the “Foreign-Longhaired” in the early 1970s.

Later, some kittens descending from Shirley and Thomas were sold to Ms. Lund of Florida, who named the breed after a Los Angeles theater to emphasize the cat’s elegance and beauty. However, because the cat had unknown background, ACA specialists doubted the relevance of further breeding of Chantilly Tiffany Cats, and the breed dropped from the ACA registry. It was only due to Canadian breeders, who, in cooperation with Robinson and Lund, took efforts to reestablish the breed in the late 1980s, that the Chantilly Tiffany Cat took its second wind.

Chantilly Tiffany Cats have a loving and gentle personality. Although it is less active than most Oriental cats, it is not as placid as Persians either. These felines are very people-oriented, and they tend to be one-person cats. Like most dogs, they can be aloof with strangers and quite possessive around their loved ones. They thrive on interaction and do not like it when there is no one around to keep them company. In this respect, the Chantilly Tiffany Cat is very reminiscent of dogs.