Breed profile / Felis catus / Britain
A cat built like a sandbag and drawn almost entirely out of circles. Britain's oldest recognised breed — and still the one most likely to be sitting three feet away from you, declining to be picked up.
Showing British Blue — pick another
The shape
Read a British Shorthair breed standard and one word keeps coming back. It isn't a coincidence — roundness is the thing judges are actually looking for, part by part.
A broad circle face-on, with full cheeks and a short, firm chin.
Large, round and set wide. Deep copper in the blue.
Small, rounded at the tip, set far apart so the skull stays circular.
Cobby — short-coupled, deep-chested, level along the back.
Round and firm, on short, sturdy legs.
Thick at the base, about two-thirds of body length, blunt tip.
How it got here
The usual origin story: cats travel with the legions to keep grain stores clear of rodents, then spend the next eighteen centuries as ordinary British farm and street cats.
Harrison Weir organises the first proper cat show in London and writes standards for the native shorthair, turning a common working animal into a judged breed.
The breed is often credited as the model for Tenniel's Cheshire Cat. Nobody has ever proved it, and nobody seems especially keen to.
Breeding all but stops. By the end of the second war, registered numbers are low enough that the breed's survival is genuinely uncertain.
Breeders cross to Persians and other shorthairs to restore numbers. That's where the dense plush coat and the very round modern face come from — and, eventually, the longhaired variant.
Routinely at or near the top of UK registration figures, and increasingly common abroad. Not bad for a cat that started out chasing mice in a barn.
Living with one
Females run smaller, roughly 3–5.5 kg. Solid rather than large.
Long-lived for a pedigree cat, given decent weight management.
Slow to mature. Expect a lanky adolescent phase that lasts a while.
The coat is dense and crisp, not woolly. More brushing during the spring moult.
Affectionate but not clingy. It wants the same room as you, not your knees.
Legacies of the Persian outcross. Ask any breeder for screened parents. Also: they gain weight easily.