Party cats with Party Looks!

Somalis are fun loving, energetic, affectionate cats. They like to busy themselves in what you are doing: you could call them nosy - they see themselves as helpful! They are intelligent cats able to work things out for themselves. A medium sized, natural looking cat with an easy care coat. Their origin is long haired kittens in Abyssinian litters. Naturally occurring long-haired kittens in Abyssinian litters were the foundation of the Somali, the long haired Abyssinian

Somalis like company: if you work all day then make sure they have a friend to play with. They enjoy a close relationship with you and love to cuddle up. Mine are demonstrative. They like to rub their faces against mine. Some love being carried draped around my neck, others prefer to put their front paws either side of my neck to nuzzle close. One pushes her nose as close to mine as she can! I am so glad that the bed is king size with everyone on board there's not much spare room

Somalis are not noisy they prefer to chirrup rather than miaou. Some like to have long conversations, others prefer to just purr

The Somali looks like it's smiling - a reflection of its sunny temperament. The Somali typically holds her tail straight up in the air, gorgeous to look at when she comes to say hello. When trotting away from you you see her pretty breeches and contrast coloured heels. The usual (see colours on separate page) looks like a little fox with her lovely brush of a tail

A Somali's fur should be a lovely silky texture, a pleasure to stroke and bury your face in. But the advantage of the Somali coat is that they only need a weekly comb: so once a week instead of stroking your Somali comb her instead. She'll enjoy it! Of course combing does need to be more frequent for the twice yearly moult - no different from other cats

The other key characteristic of the Somali is her ticked coat. This means that on the ticked areas there should be at least three bands on every hair - six contrasting colour sections from base to tip. This gives a glorious variation to the look of the Somali coat.

The Somali has a 'spine line' which is darker shading along the spine and top of tail more noticeable in some colours than others

Somalis are a medium sized cat of foreign (slim) type. Their looks are natural: they are not extreme in any way and that's the way I like them! The GCCF General Type Standard gives the 'formal' description

Somalis are quite rare. In 2009 over 25,000 pedigree cats were registered with the GCCF in the UK; less than 120 of these were Somalis.