Cats are one of the most majestic creatures in the animal family. They're clean, refined, and usually have shiny soft, straight coats. But have you ever seen a cat with curly fur?
The Selkirk Rex one of the only breeds that has shaggy, sheep-like hair - and they look amazingly cuddly.
It's still a rare breed, yet the Selkirk is growing in popularity, especially since there are tons of pics of the gorgeous breed on Instagram.
Interestingly, the breed first originated in Montana, USA in 1987, from one cat in a breed born to a rescue cat.
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The curly-haired kitten was then placed with breeder Jeri Newman, who named her Miss DePesto after the curly-haired character from TV series Moonlighting.
Jeri then made the little kitten the dominant breeder, and two kinds of the breed were developed: a long-haired and short-haired type. She named the breed 'Selkirk' after her stepfather, so making it the first breed of cats to be named after a human.
The Selkirk Rex differs from the LaPerm breed (another curly-haired cat, where the word 'perm' derived from, surprisingly enough) as its coat is plusher and thicker.
Eleonora Muccio, a Selkirk Rex breeder from Switzerland, tells PRETTY 52 she fell head over heels for the breed after seeing it at an expo in Geneva: "I felt immediately in love!" she says.
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The auditor - who runs an Instagram account for her cats with over 37,000 followers - got her fair-furred Selkirk, Gina, in December 2017. She describes Gina as "very agile, curious, talkative and cuddly".
Eleonora then began to breed Selkirk's to share the amazing breed with the world.
Despite their shaggy appearance, the cat owner describes their fur as "softer than straight hair" as the hair is finer, but warns the Selkirk Rex malt a lot in summer due to the heat.
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Eleonora adds that they get more earwax and rheum than other breeds, too. "For that they need special care, I clean their eyes and ears once a week," she says, adding: "But you have to pay attention you don't do it too much as they can get an infection."
We're officially Selkirk fans.
Featured Image Credit: Gina_and_Gepetto/Instagram