your net //: Spot the leopard lying serene on the hearth

By PETER SINCLAIR

"God," said 19th century writer Theophile Gautier of his tabby snoozing on the hearth, "created the cat to give man the pleasure of caressing the tiger."

Now, it seems, He wants us to caress the leopard too.

Wandering through cyberspace a few weeks back I came across the photograph of an extraordinary cat which looked like an ocelot.

There was something feral about it; its fierce spotting gave it the wild, prowling look of the jungle or the sand. You might think twice before stroking it; and I wouldn't want to be any kind of rodent with one of those around.

It was one of the world's newest and trendiest breeds of domestic feline: the ocicat.

First appearing (by accident) in the fifties, after a good deal of genetic toing and froing involving the Abyssinian, Siamese and American shorthair, it was granted full championship status by the American Cat Fancy in 1987.

Now it has made the feline Top 10 in a variety of designer spots: tawny, cinnamon, chocolate, blue silver, lavender - every combination you can think of (hint for the confused: categorise it by inspecting the very tip of its tail).

Once it would have taken weeks, but this is the internet. Within minutes I had a short but complete list of New Zealand ocicat breeders and was chatting to Glenfield's Kirsty Bisset-Clark (KayJays Abyssinians and Ocicats) who works at a North Shore fertility clinic and has recently broadened her interest to include ocicats.

Kafka, her stunning silver-spotted ocicat, is expecting next month - by some quirk of genetics her family will be chocolate, tawny or cinnamon - and takes a lively interest in Kirsty's new website.

This seems to be characteristic of the breed - I spoke to Jody Robinson of Bulls (Abyrose Abyssinians and Ocicats), who said her ocis spend much time on top of the computer peering into it upside down.

The internet seems the way to go for both cats and their breeders. Jody says her website attracts numerous orders, as does that of Val Lewis in Karaka, whose Spotzycats, with its new state-of-the-art show-cattery, is perhaps the most developed in New Zealand.

Surf the Ocicat Web Ring to chart the rise and rise of this untamed-looking breed which enjoys human interaction so much it will follow from room to room watching its people doing really dull things.

More rambunctious than most longhairs but less kinetic than its Oriental cousins, the oci is a born performance-artist in its ability to open doors, retrieve, and learn tricks. You may also want to invest in a copy of PawSense.

Now, thanks to the net, you can experience a pleasure denied to Theophile Gautier: a leopard on the hearth.

Links:

Théophile Gautier

Ocicat

Indian Desert Cat

NZ Ocicat breeders

KayJays
Abyssinians and Ocicats

Abyrose Abyssinians and Ocicats

Spotzycat Ocicat and Abyssinians

Ocicat Web Ring

PawSense - catproof your computer