As a child, many of us probably wished that our stuffed animals could come to life. They were always so cute, soft, and cuddly – they would make the perfect pets, right? Well, in a way, your childhood dreams may be able to come true! A new breed of cat has been officially distinguished: Poodle Cats

What are poodle cats?

Now not to worry, poodle cats not a cross between the famous dog breed and a cat, though it kind of looks like it. Also called “a cat in sheep’s clothing”, the actual name of the breed, given to the cat by researchers from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, is the Selkirk Rex: a fluffy kitty with distinctively curly hair.

The Origin of the Selkirk Rex poodle cats

The Selkirk Rex is a sort of Cinderella story. In 1987 a litter of kittens was born in Montana to a feral cat. There was one kitten, however, who looked different than the rest: she had curly whiskers and as she grew, curly fur.

Her unique look caught the eye of Jeri Newman, a breeder specifically for Persian cats, who was visiting the shelter where she was living at the time. He adopted her and gave her the name “Miss DePesto” after the secretary from the TV show “Moonlighting”, also known for her curly do.

A dominant gene

Now, there are other breeds with the curly-haired gene, such as the Devon Rex and the Cornish Rex, however, the gene in those cats is not dominant, so the likelihood of having curly-haired kittens from them is quite low.

When Newman adopted Miss DePesto, he did not yet know if her curly gene was dominant or not. He bred her with his black Persian PhotoFinish and waited to see what would happen. Sure enough, when the litter was born, 3 out of 6 kittens had curly hair. This proved that the gene was, in fact, dominant, making the Selkirk Rex the first naturally dominant curly-haired breed.

How to know you have a Selkirk Rex in a litter

This may seem obvious, however, when a litter is firstborn, you can’t really tell if a kitten’s fur is curly or straight. Instead, you must look at their whiskers. The Selkirk Rex, or poodle cats, will have curly whiskers right from the start.