Brothers of the Oregon Rex from all over the world, the history of appearance, fame and demand, the disappearance of the original breed, the recognition of the variety. The Oregon Rex, Oregon Rex, or, as it is officially called the oregon rex, is a medium-sized cat, with a strong, but at the same time elegant body, slender paws and silky, curly hair that can be dyed in a variety of shades. In addition to the unique fur coat, these cats also have remarkable eyes, they are large, always wide open and of a beautiful color, which is in perfect harmony with the color of the coat. In the almond-shaped eyes of the Oregonian, one can see not only beauty, but also a very extraordinary intellect, which nature has awarded him.
The Oregon Rex is an extraordinary animal that came into our world quite by accident more than fifty years ago, but to this day it continues to excite the interest of both professional breeders of purebred cats and ordinary people, whose souls are drawn to everything rare, unusual and at the same time to be beautiful. This original representative of the feline world is a versatile "soldier". With him anywhere - they wanted to have an unusual and clever kitten as a pet - this is about him, we decided to go for a walk in the yard - you can safely take him with you, but at the cat show he will be very useful, since there are such rare specimens left there are not many in the whole world. So, if you manage to get this cat of this breed, then you can consider that unprecedented luck has smiled at you.
Distant relatives of the Oregon Rex from around the world
When a person has such an opportunity to get acquainted with some unknown animal, for example, a cat of a unique breed, the question involuntarily arises in his head: “How is this possible? Where did it come from? Has nature tried, or is its uniqueness a merit of the breeders? It can be the same when meeting such an amazing representative of the cat world as the Oregon Rex.
The history of the origin of this breed of cats does not conceal any special secrets or mysteries of world significance, in fact, everything is much simpler.
Around the middle of the last century, namely in the 50s, completely unusual kittens began to appear in some parts of our planet. All their uniqueness and originality lay in the fact that the fur that wrapped their small bodies was formed by thick, short, but strongly curly hairs. Probably the most surprising was the fact that such original curly kittens were born independently of each other and at different times, moreover, there is evidence that their parents were unremarkable yard cats. Thus, unusual seals were born in Russia, in the Urals, in England, Germany and the USA.
Most of these families simply did not pay special attention to such wonderful kittens, admired a little, and that's all, no one even thought about finding out where they came from. But one woman nevertheless was seriously worried about her pet, which brought her such unexpected, and most importantly, still unseen offspring and took the kids to the veterinarian.
Naturally, the medical professional was incredibly interested in this phenomenon, and he began to raise "on the ears" all his acquaintances among the scientists who study cats. After some time, it became known that the birth of such peculiar kittens is nothing more than the result of a spontaneous genetic mutation, the cause of which has not been found out to this day.
Proceeding from the fact that such kittens began to be born more and more often, scientists had to somehow officially register this mutation, and then it was decided to call all curly seals, regardless of the place and date of birth, "Rex". So in the scientific community, the recessive gene that is responsible for the curliness of the cat's hair is usually called the "rex gene".
Until now, under such a vast collecting concept as "Rex", more than six such breeds of cats, similar to each other, but very different in genotypes, have already been officially certified. All cats falling under the category of "rex" have one thing in common - it is their beautiful curly hair and vibrissae (this is the name of the hard type of tactile hairs, which are mechanosensitive and protrude above the surface of the animal's fur), otherwise they can be easily distinguished. All these kittens have different body dimensions, shapes and sizes of eyes and ears, length of paws and tail, color variants and even their character also differ. Since it would never have been possible in different countries and continents to call all cats with curls rex, another decision was made - to call each separate subspecies of curly kittens the same rex, but with the prefix denoting their homeland. So the list of pedigree representatives of the feline world has noticeably replenished with such breeds as the Cornish Rex, German Rex, Devon Rex and, of course, the Oregon Rex.
Based on the name of the Oregon Rex cat, it is no longer difficult to guess that the native land of the first representative of this breed is the state of Oregon in the United States.
The origin story of the Oregon rex
According to some scientific sources, around 1954-1955, one American cat gave birth to a baby that was completely different from the rest of the kittens in the litter. He differed from them in his original curly fur, while all his other brothers were ordinary fluffy cats.
At first, this baby attracted the attention of only local residents, who, at the sight of an unusual kitten, did not miss the opportunity to cuddle him and even some took pictures with him, he was a kind of local landmark. With the advent of several more kittens with such an extraordinary appearance, people began to vigorously raise the question of whether their pets should be recognized as purebred.
Quite a lot of time and effort was spent on proving to the higher authorities that these are indeed cats, worthy of being able to be boldly identified as a separate and independent breed. Then the Oregon Rex finally received such an expected recognition by the CFA (Cat Fanciers Association), these unique animals were not even renamed, curly purrs, and remained with their name in honor of their native American land. After some time, Oregonians gained recognition from another official community, better known as TICA (International Cat Association).
Demand and peak of popularity of representatives of the oregon rex breed
After these unusual animals began to be considered "purebred" already according to official documents, certified with all the necessary signatures and seals, the Americans were more and more interested in Oregon Rex kittens, then there was a very great demand for them, but everything was not so good just as it seemed at first glance.
The thing is that the population of cats with curly hair was already very small, so finding such a kitten was extremely difficult, we can say that it was almost impossible, and, accordingly, not cheap. The explanation for this is very simple, the characteristic "gene of uniqueness" of the Oregonians was recessive and manifested itself rather rarely. For this reason, the Oregon Rex was considered a very elite and refined breed, so only people from high society could afford to buy such a pet.
The disappearance of the Oregon Rex and attempts to bring back an unusual breed
Since the breeders already realized that Oregon Rexes are not just pets of unusual beauty, but also a very good profit, they began to look hard for a way out of the situation, because the likelihood that such a profitable baby would be born in the litter was very low and impatience and the desire to earn good money did their bad job. Tempted by big and easy money, breeders decided to breed Oregonians with each other. Thus, the Oregon Rex gradually began to dissolve among the crowd of other cats that were born as a result of artificial selection, they are similar to the oregon rex in their external data, but they differed at the genetic level. So by the end of the 70s of the last century, the last, that is, the titled Oregon Rex, passed away.
Today in the United States there are selfless breeders who are struggling to breed Oregon Rex cats, they succeed, but still not completely. Since there is scientific confirmation of the fact that the standard of the Oregon breed, which was adopted by the world cat federation in the 50s of the last century, is no longer possible to restore. So we can say that the greed of the then breeders completely destroyed such an extraordinary breed of cats.
Nowadays, with all your desire to acquire a representative of this breed, you will have to search hard for him, since there are not so many Oregon kittens around the world. Those few breeders who are engaged in breeding the breed no longer repeat the mistakes of their predecessors and are stubbornly waiting for the less active gene to show itself. For them, this is more of a lottery than a stable business.
The current status of Oregon Rex cats
Due to the fact that the officially approved standard for the breed of Oregon cats disappeared more than forty years ago, there is no reliable data on the status of modern Oregonians. The fact that the then Oregon Rex is no longer, unfortunately, and most likely never will be - is not a secret for anyone, especially for all sorts of organizations dealing with cats. Since the disappearance of the last male of the oregon rex breed, there have been no statements from organizations about new standards and requirements for the breed. But looking through the lists of recognized cat breeds on the official websites of communities such as FIFe (International Cat Federation), TICA (International Cat Association), CFA (International Cat Breeding Organization) and other similar organizations, nowhere is there such a breed as oregon rex, so the fact that this species is extremely rare is for sure, but whether it is documented is a kind of mystery.
