Cat breed · Brazil
The Brazilian Shorthair is a breed of cat. It is the first cat breed from Brazil to receive international recognition.
Temperament: The Brazilian Shorthair is viable as an indoor as well as an outdoor cat, and is keen on human contact. They are very playful as a kitten. As they get older, they sober up a little, though they stay fairly active.
Description: The Brazilian Shorthair is a medium-sized cat of great agility. The breed can be distinguished from the American Shorthair by its sleek and elegant appearance, though cats of the breed are not as thin as the Siamese. The coat is short and close to the skin and comes in a wide variety of colors and patterns. The space between the eyes should be equal to the size of one eye. Brazilian Shorthairs have dramatically expressive eyes. They are longer than they are tall. Males have bigger heads than females.
The Brazilian Shorthair Cat had its beginning when the engineer Paulo Samuel Ruschi, a cat breeder and founder of the first Cat Federation in Brazil and the first Cat Club in Rio de Janeiro, had the idea to transform certain cats found in the streets of Brazil into a purebred cat. He focused on the Iberian Peninsula cats, brought to Brazil by the Portuguese in their ships around 1500 A.D. From North to South of Brazil, commissions were created by Dr. Paulo Ruschi to study this animal in all of the country's parks and streets. After long years of experimental breeding program led by traditional breeders, the Brazilian Shorthair was finally approved by the World Cat Federation, with headquarters in Germany, as a Pure Breed cat. Nowadays, the Brazilian Shorthair cat can participate in contests all over the world.
Appearance: They have medium-sized and muscular bodies. The tail should not be broad at the base, and should slightly taper in the tip. Brazilian Shorthair cats have a slightly curved profile and large, pointed ears, and large, rounded eyes with colour that resembles the coat's colour. The coat is very short, silky and glossy and with no undercoat. Minimal brushing is required. Almost all colours are possible.
Origin: The breed was purportedly started by a cat breeder named Paulo Samuel Ruschi, who founded the first Cat Federation in Brazil and the first Cat Club in Rio de Janeiro. Paulo Ruschi started this effort in 1985. Ruschi noticed that feral and street cats from multiple cities in Brazil shared a good number of common characteristics, and decided to look into this further. Ruschi's research apparently traced these cats' origins back to the late 15th century early 16th century, to cats brought over on ships by Portuguese colonizers and merchants.
His theory then proposes that these cats brought from Portugal descended from cats from the Iberian Peninsula. Therefore, the Brazilian Shorthair's ancestors are from the Iberian Peninsula. These Portuguese cats, once in Brazil, settled and then began adapting to their new climate conditions, leading to the creation of a landrace population
The claim here is that, like how cats brought from Europe to North America evolved to develop some differences (from which two landrace/natural breeds were developed - the Maine Coon and American Shorthair), European moggies brought to South America also diverged over time.
