Cats

The British Shorthaired cat is currently the most popular cat breed to have in the UK since 2001 when it took the top spot from the Persian. Not only are they popular pet kitties to have but they are also popular show cats too.

British shorthairs were first breed by cats that the Romans brought to England that were breed with native wild cats, they have since been bred with breeds like the Persian in order to improve the thickness of their coat. They have been shown in cat shows since 1871 when they first appeared in the Crystal Palace cat show.

British shorthairs have a muscular build with a broad chest, hips and shoulders and short legs. Even though they only have short legs they are very muscular as is their body in general, this has lead to them being described as the bulldog of the cat World'. Their heads are round and they are known for have chubby cheeks, wide, large set apart eyes, which are normally gold or copper but ultimately can be any colour. Their coats are soft and known for the breaks in it over the contours of their body. Male British shorthairs grow to a larger size than the females, with males weighing between 5-10 kilograms and females around 5- kilograms. Males also tend to have more obvious cheek jowls which make the genders look different from one another. British shorthairs have good life span and can often live to the old age of 20!

British shorthairs can be a number of colours nowadays, with the most popular being the British Blue', however other colours can be black, fawn, red and chocolate to name a few, they can also have patterns on their coats.

They are a very easy going breed of cats that take well to living indoors, and they don't particularly crave for attention, but like all cats they do like some attention and enjoy playful activities with their owner and are easily entertained by mouse or stick toys. They enjoy being around their owners, sitting with them but they won't insist on sitting on you like some cats do and tend to watch family activities nearby. Due to their easy going nature they get along happily with other people and will happily sit around the house on their own without distorting house objects. They are a breed that tends to follow owners from room to room but do prefer to be pattered whilst keeping all fours on the ground rather than being picked up, however some will let you hug them.

British shorthairs are very intelligent and for this reasons have become a hugely popular cat to be used for TV and films, this is due to them being extremely easy to train and this ability to learn a number of small tricks at the same time.

For this reason there are a number of noticeable British shorthairs such as; in the Whiskers pet food commercials a British sliver shorthaired is used, a British blue shorthaired is used as the face of Sheba cat food, Toby the cat in the drama Desperate Housewives is also of the same breed. In films British shorthairs have been used for the following parts; Russian Blue, a blue/grey cat in the film Cats & Dogs, again a blue/grey was used to play Arlene in Garfield The Movie and in the book and film of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland the Cheshire cat was based on the British shorthair breed.