|
| Weight |
9-12 lbs. |
| Overview |
The tailless Cymric, whose name is derived from the Gaelic word for Wales, is a longhaired version of the Manx. It is a friendly, affectionate, relaxed companion--an easy feline to share a home with. According to some sources the Cymric is somewhat doglike in its habits; it will play "fetch," growl at an unidentified disturbance, and may follow its owner around.
This cat is also known for its love of shiny objects--keep an eye on your jewelry! Cymrics like to snooze in laps and high places. Children, dogs, and other cats are taken in stride.
|
| Appearance |
The Cymric is a solidly built, medium-size, cobby cat with a round head, widely spaced ears, and large, round eyes. The powerful hindlegs are longer than the front legs, so the short back arches upward to the rounded rump.
A completely tailless Cymric is called a "rumpy"; the "rumpy riser" appears to be tailless but has one to three vertebrae fused to the end of the spine; the "stumpy" has one to five normal vertabrae, which give the cat a short, moveable tail stump; the "longy" is a cat witha shorter-than-normal tail, but a tail nonetheless.
The Cymric has a soft, semi-long outercoat that gradually lengthens from head to rump. Many colors and patterns are accepted, including tabby, solid, bicolor, shaded, tortoiseshell, and calico.
|
| Grooming Needs |
The Cymric's dense coat needs to be combed two or three times a week to remove loose fur. |
| Origins |
The Cymric and its shorthaired cousin, the Manx, are among the oldest natural breeds of cats. They are native to the Isle of Man, an island in the Irish Sea between England and Ireland.
How did these cats lose their tails? Geneticists have determined that taillessness occurred as the result of a spontaneous mutation. The Manx was easily established due to the genetic nature of the tailless trait and centuries of inbreeding in an isolated island environment. Both long- and shorthaired cats existed on the Isle of Man before the appearance of the mutant gene for taillessness. When the tailless Cymric appeared, the recessive longhair gene may have been part of the package.
|
| Other |
Some Cymric cats experience neurologic disorders and defecation problems due to spinal defects associated with the gene for taillessness. The rabbitlike hop that is sometimes seen in Cymric cats is probably due to some degree of spinal deformity. Spinal abnormalities can be discerned in kittens before they reach four months of age. |
|
|
