Grand Champion Elusive Blue Tobias of BirchCrest

Cream Mackerel Tabby

2002-2003 North Atlantic Region's Best of Breed

    Originally known as the British Blue, the British Shorthair is England's oldest natural breed of cat.  The breed was first only recognized in blue, but today we have many beautiful colors to chose from.  The British is a solid, sturdy cat.  The head should be round, and the muzzle should have a "jowly" look.  The chest should be broad and the legs fairly short.  The coat of the British Shorthair is one of the breed's most unique features.  It is a short, dense, plush coat.  It can only be liked to crushed velvet to those who have not had the pleasure of caressing a British Shorthair.  

  Solid Blue is by far the most common color of British Shorthairs.  Brits come in many solid colors in addition to Blue, Black, Red, Cream, and White.  All of the Tabby patterns are available (classic, mackerel, spotted) in all of the Tabby colors Brown, Blue, Cream, Brown Patched, Blue Patched, Red, Silver, Silver Patched.  All these colors can be combined with white.  British Shorthairs can also be found in the striking Silver Shaded and Golden Shaded patterns.

 While BirchCrest Cattery does produce some Blue Brits our goal is to advance Brits of color, especially silvers and reds. At BirchCrest we are very fortunate to have silver spotted tabbies in our breeding program.  Last year, there were only 85 silver spotted tabbies registered with CFA. (CFA, Almanac, March 2002) Mylie is a silver spotted tabby.  Red is also a spotted tabby, but he is a red spotted tabby.  These photos show the spots on the spotted tabby pattern well.  The next cat you see is Champion Elusive Blue Safari of BirchCrest; she is a brown spotted tabby.  Brown spotted tabbies are another rare color for British Shorthairs.

    Since BirchCrest works with the silver gene, we also produce Smokes.  The most common is the Black Smoke, but we also produce Smoke Torties and will be producing Blue Smokes and Blue-Cream Smokes, Cream Smokes, etc.  To visualize the color of a smoke, you must imagine every hair on the cat.  The top 75% of each hair is black (or Tortie, Blue, etc.) and the bottom 25% is silver.  When the cat is in repose he or she should appear to be a black cat, but when the cat moves or is petted; the striking silver lining can be seen.  It is a very dramatic color.  We call Black Smokes our Blacks with a Silver Lining.  Champion BirchCrest's Moment's To Remember is a Black Smoke.

    British Shorthairs can also be any of the solid colors or tabby patterns combined with white to create a Bi-Color.  The cat to the left is Bella, Champion AdventHill IsaBella of BirchCrest.  Bella is a blue mackerel tabby and white British Shorthair.  She is a lovely little female and the only female to ever take Grand Championship points away from the Toby, when they were both in Championship competition together.  Quite an accomplishment for a little girl. The  cutie-pie to the right is one of Bella's Kittens.  Rocket is her daddy (AdventHill Elton of BirchCrest X Champion AdventHill Isabella of BirchCrest).  Her name will be BirchCrest's Yankee Doodle Dandy!; as she was born on the Fourth of July.  She will be staying here at BirchCrest.

    BirchCrest's main goal is to promote the rare colors of British Shorthairs.  We want to maintain stunning type with a flashy paint job.  We want to increase the numbers of silver spotted tabbies, silver tabbies, creams, reds, and smoke torties.  Then there is Mellisa's dream:  Big, cobby, jowly cats, built like Toby, but painted as cameos, and red smokes, silver-patched spotted tabbies, silver shadeds and cameo (red) shadeds Brits romping about the house.  As the BirchCrest cats mature and begin to produce babies the colors will be exciting!  Mellisa is putting her knowledge of genetics into this breeding program and hopes of producing the colors described above.  We can't wait.

Grand Champion Elusive Blue Tobias of BirchCrest and Champion Elusive Blue Mylar of BirchCrest play as ten week old of kittens.

AdventHill Elton of BirchCrest, "Rocket", as a 12 week old kitten and as a young adult. Rocket is Solid Blue or a Self Colored Blue British Shorthair.

Typo and Savannah, two solid-self or solid colored BSH kittens.

Still under Construction!

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Last modified: 05/10/07