Rare Breed Cats. Toyger

In today's world there are more than two hundred breeds of cats, but not all pedigreed cats can boast that their history of origin is fairly well known. But toygers are lucky, perhaps, this is the rare case when the origin of the breed and know everything in detail. Primarily, this is due to the fact that the toygers – one of the youngest rocks (in 2007 it was registered for the first time, and only one of the TICA). And the second reason is that the toyger breed was created according to a predetermined sketch, which was never previously in the history of the feline.

The Author was a particular person, profession – an architect by vocation – felinologist and breeder, and his name – Judy Sugden. But can it be called a coincidence that one of the technical specialties came up with the idea of creating a new breed of cats? No, of course! Because Judy didn't grow up in an ordinary family, her mother, Jane mill, at one time brought one of the now most famous and popular in the world of breeds of domestic cats – Bengali.

Perhaps her mother was an example or inspiration, and maybe Judy wanted to have at least lush laurels, but whatever it was, she took a piece of paper and just drew on it the future of the toyger. She conceived of toyger was supposed to be similar to a soft toy tiger, plush toy. Hence came the name of the future breed: toy (toy – toy) + ger (tiger – tiger). Now, when it became clear the shape of a beast and his name, started work on the selection.

The Founders of toygers have become the Bengal and the usual breed of street cat, who was specially brought Judy from India, because it had all the essential signs of the future of the breed. For further work were chosen for a variety of animals, and where they found the Creator of toygers probably won't remember it herself. And here, finally, was obtained the animals that stably carried and passed breed characteristics that make the toygers unique and as similar to the sketch on a piece of paper. So, in 2006, after thirteen years of hard breeding work were presented to the world of toyger – “toy tiger”, a year later the breed was officially registered in one of the international felinological systems.

What is it, toyger?

Strange to say, but, according to the official standard, the toyger is not like a toy tiger, but rather, on a stylized copy of a real tiger. Judge for yourself: toyger should have a long, muscular, strong body with heavy front end, wide neck and shoulders, with strong bones and deep chest. Tail short, long and straight as a rope, with a rounded tip. Wide and long head with clear contours, little eyes, long broad nose, small rounded ears. And the drawing... the maximum contrast and black or brown stripes on a red background, preferably looped and covers also the belly, and paws, and tail; black pads, feet and tip of the tail – in General, it seems that the authors of the standard did everything that no one guessed that the prototype of the toyger was a plush toy.

In our country, the toygers appeared in 2008, Judy was personally in charge of the breeding program, so the first time representatives of the breed, and kennels who have earned the right to have them, were isolated. Today the number of Russian toyger catteries has increased the popularity of the breed grew, but still, mini-tigers remain one of the most expensive and rare cats.

It Should be noted that the Russian toyger breeders are not only responsible attitude to the legacy of Judith, but also continue to improve type and color of its graduates, achieving as close as possible to their wild relatives – tiger. The hardest part of the task – to achieve consolidation of signs that are only wild cats (bleached belly and inner surface of legs, longer fur on the cheeks, so-called feathering, very small, round ears, juicy and bright red background of the body). Thus, we can say that the breed continues its development and formation, and Russian nurseries have already achieved impressive results – in 2013, the toyger from Moscow kennel GreenCity was the best toyger of the year in the world and shut down the highest title of “Supreme Grand champion”.

I must say that nursery is almost no kittens in breeding, all graduates are sold as either animal exhibitions (show-class), or Pets (pet-class). Toyger kittens leave the cattery at the age of at least 3-4 months already neutered, with paperwork and vaccinations done. Depending on the class of the kitten and the purpose of his purchase, prices vary significantly, but are among the highest among all breeds.

But back to the actual toygers, they are unique not only for its origin and appearance. These extraordinary creatures have true grace of tiger – a strong gait, low tail, confident movement, heavy body – all reminiscent of the wild “fellow”. No matter what steady movements sometimes lead to awkward situations and tight body becomes the subject of endless Tuscany, toyger it does not bother. Moreover, it is difficult to imagine a cat that would be so wild attractive appearance and funny behavior that is peculiar to silly kittens.

Toygers incredibly smart, have excellent memory, to the extenttalkative and moderately active, prefer to play rather peculiar dogs – to bring a toy or a stick to the feet, to include your item in a basin of water, put his plate with food stuffed Bunny for your child or just splash around in the tub under running water. All of these wonderful abilities, got toygers from their ancestor – the Bengal cat, which, in turn, was derived by obtaining progeny from the wild Asian leopard cat (ALC) and domestic cat. You see, it turns out that in the veins of the home cub is the fraction of true wild blood!

In conclusion, I want to add that your humble servant – the author of this article, is the proud owner of a four-year toyger weighing 12 kg, who goes about his Affairs solely in the toilet, loud and long outraged empty bowl every evening, greeted at the door, uttering loud acclamations, playing with twigs from trees and sleeping with the owners in bed. Although... can we sleep with him and carry his wand?