HERKOMST NOORSE BOSKAT

History Norwegian Forest Cat

The breedname Norwegian Forest Cat does suspect the breed comes from Norway, there where the cat is called Norsk Skogkatt.
The Norwegian Mythology tells us stories about huge cats. One cat was soo heavy in weight that the god Thor couldn't lift him up.
The cart of the goddess of love, Freya, was pulled forward by two very strong cats.
People who gave those cats food while Freya was travelling through their villages could count on the protection of Freya for their harvest.

Later on the early Christians excommunicated Freya and considered the cats as bad forces.

Pan's Truls

No one exactly knows how the Norwegian Forest Cats came in Norway. There are several theories about it.
Maybe the Vikings, who in their legends talk about 'elfcats', took those cats with them while they travelled the seas, oceans and rivers of Europe, Asia and Northern America.

Or maybe they took overseas cats with them to Scandinavia, where these imported cats mated with the cats living in Scandinavia already?

Probably the breed Norwegian Forest Cat has it's roots in Turkey, there where the halflonghaired Turkish Angora lives.
We see coatcolors in Turkish Angora cats that are also seen in the wegie, but hardly are seen in other European breeds.
We also see some resemblance between both breeds.

Ofcourse there are differences. The Norwegian Forest Cat is bigger and more shaggy and better boned. The bigger look of the wegie is because of the matings with other breeds that already lived in Scandinavia. ( it's just theory ofcourse)

But when you take a look at the pic on the right - you will see Pan's Truls with his shorthaired mother.
A kind of desillusion for most wegiebreeders, but it makes the theory as described above believable.

Pan's Truls with his mother Lucy

In 1912 the first "Norwegian Forest Cat" was shown at a catshow. The name of this male was Gabriel Scott Solvfaks.
There was an author, Gabriel Scott, who wrote a Norwegian fairy-tale book for children in which a male cat with the name Solvfaks played the leading part.

In the '(19)30's more catlovers became interested in Solvfaks and they started the first Norwegian catclub in 1938.

In 1972 the breed got the official name 'Norwegian Forest Cat' and in 1977 the breed was accepted by the FiFe.
For the breeding standard they used the pics of Pan's Truls, one of the ancestors of the breed, and made some corrections in it.

Pan's Polaris
(you will see his name in lots of pedigrees)

At catshows in Europe, the wegies are not judged on coatcolor, but in the US they sometimes do!

All tabby patterns are accepted in wegies, except color-points and the so called X-colors (lilac, cinnamon, fawn...)
In the last years a lot of wegiebreeders breed with X-colors, although they aren't accepted.

There is a lot of research going on on the X-colors. Breeders and catclubs want to know where the colors are coming from OR maybe they just are mutations?

*history norwegian forest cat
*ems-codes
*breeding standard
*norwegian forest cats books
*purchasing a norwegian forest cat
*development norwegian forest cat kitten

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