A WALL STREET BEGINNING

The Minuet journey commenced at approximately 8:45 a.m. on June 12, 1995.  The route to my desk took me past the receptionist's area every morning where, as you would expect in any law office, the daily edition of the  Wall Street Journal resided.  What was different about this day however was a sketch on the front page of a cat with very short legs, and the following article.  Having been a Basset Hound breeder for many years prior, I knew immediately what this cat was "about."  However, little did I know where this article would take me and how it foreshadowed many of the obstacles we were to face.

     THE FUR IS FLYING OVER RARE CAT BREED CALLED THE MUNCHKIN -- IT HAS EXCEEDINGLY SHORT LEGS AND IS CUTE OR A FREAK; FANCIERS HISS ABOUT IT

People who fancy cats are accustomed to odd breeds cropping up.  Take, for example, the Sphynx, a hairless cat that looks like a cross between a Chihuahua and a grub.  Or the American Curl, which has crunched up ears.  

But Katherine Crawford, a longtime member of the International Cat Association, says there are limits to what can rightly be called a new line of feline.  She thinks the Munchkin, which has been likened to a mutant sausage, is way past the limit.  

"I'm resigning over those damned cats," says Ms. Crawford. "They're an abomination.  I will judge my last show for The International Cat Association in November."

Much fur is flying.  Tord Svenson, a cat association board member and Munchkin owner, says that anti-Munchkin arguments "don't involve the frontal lobes of the brain."  As for the Munchkin foes, he says, "The more the facts go against them, the more vituperative they become.  They get nasty.  I don't think they need to be convinced, they need to be treated." 

Nothing is tearing cat lovers apart like the Munchkin -- a cat that looks like a dachshund, with stubby legs that are half as long as a normal cat's.  "It's a pretty radical departure in terms of the physical appearance of what we usually expect in the cat," admits Solveig Pfleuger, who breeds Munchkins.

Many cat fanciers say the Munchkin's truncated forelegs are a deformity, and that it is wrong to breed for the trait.  But Munchkin lovers say that the cat isn't crippled -- just different -- and can run, menace mice and shred upholstery with the best of them.

On a scale of cattiness, the Munchkin tempest rates a strong 10, and not just in the U.S.  "It has France in an absolute uproar," Ms. Crawford says.  It also raises questions:  How does a freak become a breed, and why does the transmogrification make so many cat fanciers howl?

Many cat breeds have inelegant beginnings.  The American wirehair has such rough, crimped hair that it picks up house dust like a magnet; the patriarch was found in 1966 in a New York barn.  The first curly coated Cornish Rex was no feline aristocat, but a mutant that was mated with its parents.

The first Munchkin was a stray found cowering from a pit bull under a pickup truck in Rayville, La., in 1983.  Its rescuer, music teacher Sandra Hochenedel, named it Blackberry.  When she got the kitty home, Ms. Hochenedel discovered that it had stunted legs and was pregnant.

No one knows how many Munchkins exist today.  The short-legged gene can occur in nature, but a growing number of Munchkin breeders are responsible for the 300 known specimens in the U.S.

Demand for the cats is high.  Breeder Laurie Bobskill of West Springfield, Mass., owner of a 21-bed cattery, says she gets as many as eight inquiries a day.  People are said to be willing to pay $1,500 or more for a Munchkin.  The cat is also gaining a pawhold -- if not universal acceptance -- in official circles.

Before the turn of the century, the government kept the cat studbooks that defined purebreds.  Today, in the U.S., there are two large cat registries, plus several smaller ones.  The biggest is the Cat Fanciers' Association in Manasquan, N.J., with 645 member clubs representing more than 75,000 cats of 36 breeds.  The second-biggest is the International Cat Association in Harlingen, Texas, with 400 member clubs, 300,000 registered cats and 50 recognized breeds.

The Cat Fanciers' have never recognized Munchkins.  But last fall, the International Cat Association's board, by a 7-4 vote, allowed Munchkins to compete in a limited category called "New Breed and Color" in the 1995 show season, which opened in May in Fall River, Mass. 

But that has scarcely quieted the Munchkin foes.  It isn't just the legs that upset them.  Munchkins slink along like ferrets, and when they sit up on their haunches and wave their deformed paws, they look like alert rabbits.  That is either cute or disgusting, depending on one's view of the matter.

Ms. Crawford, the cat judge, is so enraged that after returning from a recent judging trip to France, she dashed off a furious letter to the cat association's board, accusing pro-Munchkin forces of making the group "the laughingstock of the entire cat fancy," or cat world.  She called the perpetuation of the Munchkins "an affront to any breeder with ethics."

Dissenting board member Sue Servies, owner of a boarding kennel in Pacific Grove, Calif., worries that Munchkin owners, pushing the edge of the genetic envelope, will breed cats with legs so short they won't be able to scratch their chins.  "A regular cat that's pregnant can get so big it can't clean itself anymore," Ms. Servies says.  "So what do you do when the tummy is bigger than the legs, and the legs can't even reach the ground?"

She adds:  "Look at the dachshund -- its front feet turn out, and the back feet turn in.  That's the only way the thing can stand up."

But the "Munchkin Manifesto," drafted by Paul McSorley, secretary of the International Munchkin Society, warns that "anti-Munchkin people will use any excuse they can to work against our cats."

Reached at his cattery in Hull, Mass. (home of his prize stud, Supa Dupa Trooper Man), Mr. McSorley accused the anti-Munchkin brigade of spreading "hearsay and rumor" and of "making up lies to try to ruin our breed."

Equally irate is Mr. Svenson, of the cat association, who voted to approve Munchkins.  "There isn't anybody much who is screaming about dog breeds that have short legs," he says.

Besides, he insists, Munchkins aren't freaks.  "It would be like if you were driving down a road and you saw a picnic of elves.  Would be horrified, or would you just be intrigued?"

Dr. Pflueger, a physician in Springfield, Mass., acquired two Munchkins several years ago as research models for human genetic disease.  But the more she studied them, the less freakish they seemed.  The could scoot about with lots of ground-hugging speed.  They climbed curtains.  They did all the normal cat things -- except jump onto kitchen counters.

She X-rayed their joints and bones and found no evidence of crippling.  So she began breeding Munchkins and, as chairman of the  cat association's genetics committee, she began lobbying to get Munchkins recognized.

What happens next is anybody's guess.  Patti Andrews, of Elkhart, Ind., an exasperated anti-Munchkin board member, says things are getting unethical.  She accuses Munchkins breeders of giving free kittens to cat association power brokers, in hopes of winning sympathy and votes.  She predicts the downfall of the group if the breed is allowed to continue.  She also claims to have spotted several unsettling deformities in Munchkins while judging the 1995 season's first cat show, including knock-knees, kinked tails and balloon heads.

An International Munchkin Society newsletter calls Ms. Andrews the "Wicked Witch of the Land of the Great Lakes," who warns: "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little cats, too."

Mr. Svenson, the pro-Munchkin board member, just sighs.  "This is the way things are done a lot of times in the cat world.  Issues degenerate to personal matters."

Barbara Carton, The Wall Street Journal, June 12, 1995

NOW WHAT?

The thrill of discovering what I thought would be "my" breed of cat soon gave way to disappointment.  Upon further investigation, I learned that the dwarf gene in cats does not operate as it does in dogs (Bassets, Dachshunds, Corgis, etc.).  Dwarf breeds of dogs only produce puppies with short legs.  Dwarf cats, however, even when bred together, only produce approximately 50% offspring with short legs.  Worse yet, the long-legged offspring do not carry the gene for short legs. (See "Breeding" for a more detailed explanation.)  Having been in the sport of purebred dogs at this time for over 20 years, as well as a volunteer at our local humane society, I could not justify the purposeful breeding of cats where half the offspring were no different from the cats already overcrowding our nation's animal shelters.

LITTLE HELP FROM A FRIEND

A few years prior to the Wall Street Journal article, I had become close friends with  Deb Kenny of Sejumay Persians.  I was showing dogs, she was showing cats, but our philosophies regarding the sport were the same: Health and beauty, first and foremost.   Deb was the first person I called regarding the Munchkin (I was so excited), and the first person I later called when I learned of the long-leg dilemma.  We both agreed on what should be done with this new dwarf gene:  Create a breed of cat that is unique, beautiful, healthy, and obviously purebred in both its short- (standard) and long-legged (nonstandard) forms.  My experience taught me that dwarf dog breeds all exhibited substantial boning and musculature; Deb pointed out that in cat breeds, none surpassed the Persian in those features, not to mention the glamour, color, and enormous gene pool available in this by far most popular of cat breeds. 

Deb was invaluable in my introduction to the cat world, for many reasons.  Not only did I learn about cats themselves, and Persians in particular, but I also became acquainted with the controversy that can surround a particular breed. Pictured is her lovely Persian, Sejumay Remington Steele (of note, he is the grandsire of the short-haired blue tabby Minuet at the bottom of the home page).   Unfortunately he could not be shown in a large cat registry because his mother was an exotic shorthair (a short-haired Persian).  It was my introduction to the difficulty often surrounding anything "new" in cats, and the prejudices that can be encountered, even when those prejudices fly in the face of rational thought and proven facts.  Deb warned of the "purist" aspect of many Persian breeders, even when a simple color (such as Himalayan) or coat length (exotic short hair) is all it takes to ignite huge controversies.  Little did I know what short legs would do ... and we weren't even attempting to add this to the Persian breed ... we were on to something new!

FIRST CAT(S)

As per Deb's advice, the first chore at hand was to get the "gene" for short legs, a Munchkin.  Research (and a lot of phone calls) led me to the cattery of Penny Squires, Penhaven.  Interestingly, Penny had bred her Munchkin (Boscobel Dixie Rose) to a white show Persian to bring the long-hair gene into her lines.  The offspring included a beautiful male, Penhaven Sampson (pictured below).  Although Samson was short-haired, she used him extensively in her breeding program, and for her he did produce many beautiful babies.

Munchkins were scarce, the demand was high, but Penny liked the idea of what I was undertaking, although she herself remained committed to the Munchkin breed in its original form.  I was placed on a waiting list, which of course seemed interminable.  

Interestingly, Samson was my first encounter with a Munchkin/Persian.  While there was quite a bit of difference noted already from the Munchkin, I felt that he was not quite "there" as far as what one would need in a new and distinct breed.  As Deb Kenny wisely explained, the triangular face, almond eyes and larger ears of the Munchkin (and domestic cat) were a lot to “undo” genetically.  Mother Nature always pulls back to the original. It obviously was going to take at least one more Persian cross to get the desired results.   This new breed was not going to come about in one fell swoop, there were stepping stones to cross first. 

Finally, in December 1995, Penny called.  She had a Samson daughter out of one of her domestic shorthairs, a solid black.  I was elated, and quite happy that it was almost tax refund time as well!   On February 2, 1996, the long drive was made from Pittsburgh to Virginia Beach, through a snow storm (of course!).  Penny was without a doubt one of the most colorful characters I had ever met in the "animal world."  

Penny and I laughed and talked until the wee hours of the morning, and what little sleep I did get was interrupted by running and playing kittens, "Samantha" included.  When Penny snapped this shot as I was leaving, all I can remember thinking was "I hope I can stay awake long enough to make it home!"

We did make it home.  Samantha fit in well with her doggie "family."  Basset puppies provided an irresistible attraction for her (see below).  I wonder if it was the dwarf gene that they commonly shared? 

Deb Kenny kindly provided me with a lovely Exotic Shorthair boy.  1997 turned into a big year: Samantha had kittens, I moved to Albuquerque with David Wilks, and it was time to begin learning about getting this new breed (as yet unnamed) officially recognized and registered.

In the United States, there are two major cat registration bodies.  Fortunately, one of them, The International Cat Association (TICA) was a "genetic" registry, complete with a well-defined path to take a new breed from experimental to championship status.  It provided a well defined "road map" to follow in terms of breed progression.  However, without the assistance of the following two "heroes" of TICA, we very well may have never left the ground: 

SOLVEIG PFLUEGER

Mentioned in the Wall Street Journal as the head of the Genetics Committee for TICA, as well as a Munchkin "supporter," the first call I made regarding registration possibilities for this new breed was to Dr. Solveig Pflueger.  I was not disappointed.  This TICA judge, and founding TICA member, took the time to explain to me the road to full registration, why TICA was considered a "genetic" registry, and the path I needed to consider taking.  She did mention that the road for any dwarf cat was littered with "landmines" as the Munchkin had created such an uproar.  She punned that I should "lay low" for the time being.  I mentioned perhaps changing the Munchkin standard to reflect a Persian outcross but she was against that concept, admitting that the Munchkin had just been accepted by the "skin of its teeth" and that the resulting hotbed was best left alone for the time being.

Solveig remained an advocate, often coming to our defense during our applications before the TICA Board (see Board Notes).  Solveig was a brilliant woman, direct, and to the point.  I miss our conversations which, surprisingly, were not so much about cats (she made quick succinct statements in that regard), but about our shared love of the opera and theater.  Her passing in 2014 left a huge gap in the purebred cat world, never to be duplicated.

GLORIA STEPHENS

As stated earlier, in 1997 we moved to Albuquerque where I set up my official cattery.  The internet was in its infancy but there were "chat groups" where various discussions would take place, one of those being a Munchkin group.  I posted little there, following Solveig's advice of laying low and tending to the breed I was developing.  I soon began corresponding with a woman known only as "Gloria."  She asked lots of questions, challenging ones, getting to the heart of what I was working on and the vision I had before me.  Finally, after a few months of this, she wrote and said "It's time you knew who I am."  It was Gloria Stephens, Judging Administrator for TICA, as well as the author of a number of cat books.  She too was an expert cat geneticist, and became a very close friend.  She stressed the importance of developing a "standard" (a detailed description of the breed's attributes).  Having shown dogs for a quarter of a century, I was familiar with dog standards, but as to the cat, I was at a loss. 

Gloria, much to my unending gratitude, offered to help with the standard.  She informed me that she was judging a show in El Paso, Texas in September (1997) and that I was welcome to drive down, get her, bring her to Albuquerque, and she would fly out after spending the weekend.  Remember, we had never met in person, I was no one in the "cat world," and we we had only "met" via  e-mail and a few phone calls.  She wasn't afraid of a challenge!

 It was a productive weekend.  Gloria arrived, inspected the cats, approved, and then proceeded to write our standard.  To the right of her was the Munchkin standard, to the left the Persian standard, and a young member of this yet to be named breed on her lap.  Fortunately I was a good typist and with her at the examining "table", and I at the keyboard, the standard was composed.  Gloria would laugh at my clumsiness at times, as at home, she would often have no less than 5 computers running at once.

Gloria's standard was used when the first application for breed acceptance was made, and is the one currently in use by Catz Inc. (see Standards).  It remained the breed standard for TICA for ten years, until 2007.

Gloria's book is a must for any cat fancier.  My copy came out in 1989, but a new edition was printed in 2001.  You will not find a more comprehensive and beautifully illustrated book on the cat, its origins, genetics and hereditary processes.  

Gloria passed away, unexpectedly, in 2005.  Her expertise and foresight were invaluable to this project, not to mention her unwavering friendship and support.

FELLOW BREEDERS/ENTHUSIASTS

Purebred animal husbandry, done right, is not about making money, but about the creation of something beautiful and unique.   Beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder, but if those beholders are not numerous, not much is going to happen.  The Minuet began acquiring "beholders" right from the start.  Once official registration began, it became evident that this breed was more than a fly-by-night occurrence.  Too numerous to mention, those early (and subsequent) breeders and pet owners, who had the breed's best interests at heart, are the ones who created the strong foundation this breed needed to stand upon and weather its many storms.  All of us who love this breed will be forever grateful.