WHERE DEVONS COME FROM?

What brings everyone attention is not only their incredible look - big head and ears, very expressive (and almost human) eyes, smiling face and curly hair coat but also wonderful character. They come from a natural mutation of house cat. First curlyhair cats were seen in Europe in 1930^th (in Berlin) and then in 1950^th in England and Germany. First Devons were breed in England. In 1960 Mrs Beryl Cox, cat lover from Buckfastleigh town (in Devonshire county) when feeding cats near the closed zinc mine found a strange cat with curly hair. Some time later in her garden one of her females gave birth to kittens. One of them - smoke boy had curly hair just like that strange cat. She decided to adopt this kitten and called him Kirlee. He grow up to become very beautiful cat with broad head  and "goblin" look. Kirlee looked great and had wonderful, almost canine, personality. He could for example walk on the lead. Mrs Cox talked with Mrs Stirling-Webb, who was owner of the first Cornish Rex cat called Kalibunker. They mate Kalibunker's daughter and Kirlee - all the kittens were very beautiful but all of them had straight hairs. This obviously meant that Kirlee wasn't Cornish Rex. When Mrs Cox found out that after Kirlee and house cat females there are some curly haired kittens she decided to mate Kirlee and his daughter with wavy furcoat. This was the beginning of the great success. She managed to create a new breed - Devon Rex. Those cats were mated with European shorthair and British cats in order to enlarge the breed material. Since 1965 Devon Rexes has started to be shown on English cat shows, and in 1967 they were recognized as a new breed by GCCF. An ideal devon should have short, soft and curly furcoat, however it may also have bony hairs. It's whiskers and eyebrows should a little curly, short and medium length. All colours with any amount of white are allowed in this breed. A devon rex's head should be short and wedge shaped with protruding cheeks. It's muzzle should be short with strong chin. Nose should be short with visible brake. Skull should be flat on the top. Big almond eyes must be far away from each other, its' colour should be clear and shiny. The outward parts of eyes should be directed to the base oh the ears. Ears should be very large, low set, rounded on the tops and covered with soft fur. Cat's body should be strong and muscular, but of small build and of medium size with wide breast. Legs should be long slim. Forelegs should be slightly curved (o-legs). Paws should be little and oval. Neck should be long and slim, tail long and thin, pointy ended and well covered with fur. It's bad when fur is not curly or protruding. Sometimes bald places may appear, which are fault when the cat is young, and when cat is adult it's a very big fault. Other not good things are: too narrow head, too stocky body, lack of musculature, small or too high set ears, short and bald or to hairy tail. Many devons have got only very light fur (down) on  their bellies, and some young cats got bald bellies. However cats with full coat are favoured. Cats of this breed mature very long and are fully mature when they are about three years old. Devons are really unusual creatures. Their amazing appearance is very often associated with that friendly alien called ET. Their very soft almost non moulting coat, wonderful character makes them a perfect animal to keep in a flat. They make no problems when it comes to living with another animals, but they always keep human in the first place in their hearts. They become strongly attached to their owners and are really friendly. Devons are real world champions of purring. They are the only cats that show their happiness by wriggling their tail. They learn very easly and are very clean. They need almost none tending procedures, all they need is being stroked and once per time bathed. Devons are a very healthy breed. They catch cold or become ill very seldom. They surely aren't a breed that suffers because of unnatural rebuilding or decreasing the size of some organs e.g. shortening the nose or excessive slimness and so on.

By Grażyna and Jerzy Pietrzok on base of:

Our observations during 6 years of breeding devons and articles from „Rex,Abyssinian and Turkish Cats" - Alison Ashford i Grace Pond , Magazin „Katze" - Valeria Slimbrouk-Wolf translated by Teresa Narkiewicz Meibaum, „Koty Encyklopedia Ilustrowana" - Britt Strader published by Art. Books. Standard FIFe.