The Beginning

Virgina Daly was a breeder in Michigan who experimented with the new and different in her cats. At the time, she was breeding Abyssinian to Siamese with the goal of an Aby-pointed (ticked tabby pointed) Siamese, which she achieved. But even she didn't expect the little golden kitten with the spots in the litter. Her daughter was quite taken with the little spotted fellow, christening him an OciCat for his spotted, wild look. Other breeders repeated the breeding of Abyssinian to Siamese to create more spotted cats, and the Ocicat breed was born.

Championship in CFA

The Ocicat was accepted by the Cat Fanciers' Association for championship (earning awards and titles while showing) in 1986. There have been many grand champions, regional winners and national winners since. The chocolate Ocicat has been particularly popular with the CFA's judges.

See the CFA Breed Standard

Living with an Ocicat!

The Ocicat is a large, muscular cat with a short, sleek coat. It has a wild appearance without the need for wild heritage, there is no wild cat in the Ocicat. It requires a minimal amount of grooming, and with little undercoat, does less shedding than many pets.

While the Ocicat is a beautiful show winner, it's also a winning companion! The Ocicat is outgoing, playful and affectionate. It loves to be around people, and is ideal for most households, taking children, guests and other pets in stride. Some owners have taught their Oci to fetch, or to walk on a leash! The Ocicat does need attention though, and does best for people that don't work long hours or travel often.

Because of the rich genetic basis of the Ocicat, there are no breed-wide inherited diseases. Breeders are still expanding the genepool of the Ocicat by using the Abyssinian.

Colors

The Ocicat comes in 12 colors, tawny, chocolate, cinnamon, blue, lavender, fawn, ebony silver, chocolate silver, cinnamon silver, blue silver, lavender silver and fawn silver. The Siamese contributed black (tawny), blue, chocolate and lavender. The Abyssinian confirmed the black contribution and then added the unique to the breed color of cinnamon (called red in the Aby) and fawn. An error by the CFA added American Shorthair to the origination of the Ocicat breed, so breeders took advantage of the opportunity to add silver to the existing colors.

Tawny	Ebony silver	Chocolate	Chocolate silver	Cinnamon	Cinnamon silver
Blue	Blue silver	Lavender	Lavender silver	Fawn	Fawn silver

Patterns

The basis of the Ocicat's spots is the classic tabby pattern, so all Ocicats carry the classic pattern. The classic pattern is broken into spots by a genetic modifier. Some Ocicats are consequently classic tabby if they don't inherit the modifier for spotting. In addition, Ocicats can also be solid, without the genetic basis for tabby. They often appear to have "ghost" spots. And, because Ocicats can still be created by breeding to the Abyssinian, some Ocicats have the ticked tabby appearance of the Aby.

For more information about the Ocicat, see the CFA Breed Profile and article from the CFA Almanac.

Interested in an Ocicat kitten or retired adult?