

Though incorrectly thought of an Egyptian cat, in 1966 one of these mysterious mutant genes surfaced on the streets of Toronto, Canada.
What happened to be a naked kitten born in an otherwise normal coated litter was discovered. This kitten “Prune,” his mother “Elizabeth,” and a few other bald mutations later discovered were the beginning of the early Sphynx breed.
Despite tales of “barnyard breeders” here and there, most of today’s pedigreed Sphynx spring from three females, Q. Punkie and Q. Paloma, who were rescued from the streets of Toronto, Canada and sent to Dr. Hugo Hernandez in Holland in 1980 and a barn cat, Zezabelle who delivered a number of hairless kittens on a Minnesota farm. The offspring from these breedings were sold in the United States, Holland and France and are the foundation of most of our present day breeding Sphynx.
During the late 1990s cross breeding between domestic short hair and other cat breeds including Devon Rex, American Shorthairs and Domestic Shorthairs has produced a wider gene pool and allowed the modern Sphynx to exhibit most of the eye and color patterns available in many of today’s cat breeds
Although the Sphynx has been called a hairless cat, this is not always accurate. You can find out more about standards on the following links: TICA Sphynx Standards and CFA Sphynx Standards.