(picture of Gr.Ch. Jenanca Jawying)

THE BREED WITH A PAST, A PRESENCE AND A FUTURE PERFECT

It’s an easy task to define the Korat. It is the blue cat of Thailand. Indeed, it’s very name in its native country means exactly that: ‘si-sawat’ greyish-blue cat. Many countries have their own blue cats, so keeping records of origin has always been important for the Korat breeders and clubs. All Korats in the west today can have their ancestry traced back to imports from Thailand. Not for nothing has it become known as the ‘blue cat with the Thai Passport’.

An Ancient Natural Breed

The earliest existing records of the cats of Thailand can be seen in the Bangkok National Library, and are known as the Cat-Book Poems. Each of the breed colours is pictured and described poetically. The Korat entry relates that, ‘The base of each hair, Is the colour of a cloud’ and Korat eyes are ‘Like dew when dropped on the leaf of a lotus’. The villagers say the eye colour is green as the first shoots of young rice.

According to the unknown author some of these cats are bringers of good luck, some bad. The Korat with its rain-cloud coat and green eyes is one of the luckiest, a symbol of wealth, fertility and good harvests. It used to be tradition for a newly married couple to be presented with a Korat on their wedding day, and in remote villages in the north east of the country a Korat is still paraded around , and carried in procession to the well where it is sprinkled with water, to ensure the rice paddies are filled by rain.

Its origins could be in the remote province of Korat, a place of huge granite outcrops, where its coat would blend in with its surroundings. It’s said that King Rama V named the breed for this geographical location earlier this century. However, they are still rare and remain the most highly prized cat of the Thai people, who do not think of the Siamese as their national cat, as we might naturally think, but the Korat.

Such a valued possession was not given lightly. It wasn’t until the 1960s that Korat breeding began in the west when a pair was sent from a friend in Bangkok to Mrs Jean Johnson of Cedar Glen cattery, USA. This brother and sister, Nara and Dara, will always be remembered in any Korat history as the first outside Thailand.

Mystery Appearance

There is though an intriguing reference over fifty years earlier to a blue cat from Siam in Britain in 1896. It was exhibited as a Siamese cat, but had the ignominy of being disqualified by one of the most famous early cat fancier judges, artist Louis Wain. The reason given was that its colouring was not the accepted biscuity fawn. The only blue cat of Siam is, of course, the Korat.

Arrival In Britain

It was to be more than seventy years before the Korat made a second appearance here, when two cats were sent to Miss Betty Munford from USA. The first British Korats were born on Easter Sunday 1972. Breed recognition was quickly gained, but there was a long wait before Championship status was attained in 1984.

The Korat did not enjoy instant popularity on the show bench, or become a ‘fashionable’ breed. Not such a bad thing, those who breed them value the Korat for the qualities it possesses, there is no desire to manufacture new ones, and the number of devoted Korat pet owners has risen steadily over the years.

Wonderful Looks

An adult Korat can be breath-takingly beautiful. The Standard of Points calls for large, luminous, green eyes and these often seem over-sized for the heart-shaped face. If the blue coat has an abundance of silver tipping then there is a halo effect as the light gleams on the silver sheen. The males show muscular power and, though the females are often smaller and dainty in appearance, both sexes surprise those who lift them as they are far more solid in substance than appearance suggests.

Choosing a kitten for show bench looks though is just about impossible with this breed. Korats are slow maturing, and kittens and adolescents are often ugly ducklings, with dark, rather fluffy coats and amber coloured eyes; the mature ‘swan’ taking three/four years to blossom. It is important to discuss with the breeder your exact requirements, but beyond saying there are no obvious faults such as white marks, or a tail defect, show potential can never be guaranteed.

A Cat Who Wants To Be Part of the Family

Do not choose this breed for its looks alone. The Korat is not for you if you are desirous of the merely decorative. They wish to be involved in the lives of their people and are truly companions. There has to be a reciprocal commitment on the part of the new owner. All of us who have owned them know how our lives were changed when Korats arrived. Their natural intelligence, liveliness and playfulness is their charm and the new owner must know of this, and be ready to give time and love, which will then be repaid a hundredfold.

Bright Future

The summer of 1998 I became hooked up to the internet. This was just as a brand new website devoted to the Korat was going on-line. In Italy, Korat enthusiast, Donatella Mastrangelo was using her computer skills to put together one of the best cat related sites on the web (Koratworld). There are sections on Korat history, health, special articles and stories. Individual countries have their own sections with breeders' lists, and the latest feature is that it's now linked by the Korat Ring to breeder and national home pages.
One development that followed quickly from this is the Korat List. This enables Korat breeders around the world to chat to each other. There’s a Korat in Denmark who loves stealing dirty socks, another in USA who managed to spray its owner’s vitamin capsules onto the wall so it looked as if the kitchen had been invaded by a beetle horde, one here can’t ignore the answer phone and will even leave his own memo. All around the world it seems there are Korats getting into mischief.

This chat is just amusing and entertaining, but if my personal experience is anything to go by those of us who are committed, serious breeders have undergone a massive learning process. After 20 years of Korats I never dreamt my knowledge was so limited by my national boundaries. I thought I knew lots, but it's been so good to be proved wrong.

Most importantly of all, this rapid information exchange became an alert to a serious potential health threat, and its solution. Two forms of a genetic disease, gangliosidosis (GM1 and GM2) have been diagnosed in Korats, a serious matter for a small breed with a limited gene pool.

We have never experienced it in UK and, because of a DNA test developed to screen for carriers of both GM types, it’s most probable that we never will. This will be entirely due to the tremendous level of international co-operation that took place, organising a screening programme for all breeding cats. Together we have secured a future for the breed we all love so much.

Jen Lacey
(adapted from an article I wrote for ‘Cat World’ August in 1998)