In 1992 the first cinnamon and fawn kittens were born in S*Wildwood's cattery (Sylvia Erikérs, Falun). The litter was not born in Sylvia's home, but in the home of Åsa Jonsson, who was co-owning the mother of the litter. Åsa called Sylvia on the phone when the kittens were born, and she told her that two of the five kittens had "strange" colours. They were extremely reddish. Sylvia told Åsa that it was nothing strange about some kittens being reddish, it was just the rufous.

The dam of the litter, CH S*Wildwood's Humla was blue spotted tabby (NFO a 24)

and the sire, IC S*Amazonas Camilo was brown classic tabby (NFO n 22).

Sylvia went to see the kittens a couple of days later, and she was very surprised to see the strange colour of these two kittens. She had never seen anything like it. They looked more like some kind of torbies, with the red markings spread asymmetrically all over their coats. But with these parents torbies was not possible to get, and to make it even more difficult - the kittens were both males! What was this?!! Sylvia asked Åsa if Humla could possibly have been mated to another male by accident, but Humla had been safely indoors all the time, so this was not a possibility. And even if it HAD been possible, it would not explain these strange colours. One of them was dark with a colour like apricot in the tabby pattern, the other one was more like a pale blue torbie. Could this really be just an extreme case of rufous?

The rumour about the strangely coloured kittens was spread rapidly, and several other breeders came to look at them, but no one had ever seen any kittens with these colours.

The three other kittens in the litter had "normal" colours: solid blue (NFO a), solid black (NFO n), and blue classic tabby (NFO a 22). And when the litter had to be registered, the darker of the kittens with the odd colours, S*Wildwood's Iros, was registered as a brown classic tabby (NFO n 22), and the light kitten, S*Wildwood's Imer, was registered as a blue mackerel tabby (NFO a 23). When the kittens were four months old, the breeder was recommended to change the colour of the brown tabby kitten to golden tabby (NFO ny 22). Since the type of these two cats were really good, they were both quite successful at shows while they were registered with recognised colours.

When Imer and Iros were about one year old, it was obvious that they were not blue mackerel tabby and golden classic tabby. It was decided that they should be registered as lilac and chocolate tabbies. So then S*Wildwood's Imer's colour was changed to NFO c 24, and S*Wildwood's Iros got the colour NFO b 22 in his pedigree.

More "chocolate" and "lilac" kittens were born

Later in 1992 one more kitten was born, that was registered as chocolate tabby. And in the years after Imer and Iros were born, kittens with these colours have been born every year. Below you can see how many have been born each year in Sweden.

Totally: 30 kittens have been born in 21 different litters.

In the autumn of 1997 a kitten was also born in Germany, that was registered as lilac classic tabby/white (NFO c 09 22). And in January 1998 a cat in Norway will be changed into a chocolate mackerel tabby/white (NFO b 09 23).

S*Wildwood's Imer

S*Wildwood's Iros

All the cinnamon and fawn Norwegian Forest Cats that have been born so far, can be traced back to the NRR registered cats Kløfterhagens Babuschka, born 1981 EP & GIC Niros Dunder, born 1983 (This is however not the case for the "chocolate mackerel tabby/white" cat in Norway.) Their parents are also NRR registered Norwegian Forest Cats, but in the generation behind them, five out of eight are cats that were accepted in the novice class. We assume that the cinnamon gene came in through one of those.It is not possible, at least not today, to decide whether it came from Dunder or Babuschka. Dunder has more offsprings than Babuschka, but most of them were not much used for breeding. The big exception is the son EC Pans Polaris, DM, who has hundreds of offsprings. But of course, even if Dunder carried the cinnamon gene, Polaris did not necessarily have to inherit it. Some other sons and daughters out of EP & GIC Niros Dunder that were used for breeding to some extent are Pans Lissi, Pans Pluto, and EP & EC Torvmyra's Vincent. And then of course GIP & EC Dea-Dia , DM av Æsene and GIC Frøy Sparetta, DM av Æsene, who both carry the cinnamon gene. Their dam is Kløfterhagens Babuschka. Babuschka also has a daughter, IC Iris av Æsene ,with Pans Polaris, but she does not seem to carry the cinnamon gene

Author : Sylvia Erikers

Thank's For pictures : - Chatterie S*Truelove's - Chatterie S*Wildwood's - Norvegian Forest X-cats

EP GIC Niros Dunder

Pédigrée de EP GIC Niros Dunder

Pédigrée de Kløfterhagen's Babuschka

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