The Norwegian Forest Cat

The ancestors of the Norwegian Forest Cat can be traced back a long way. However, its breed history is still young. It was only finally recognized by the Fifé (Fédération Internationale Féline) in November 1977, and it took a very long time before the first efforts were made to breed this breed of cat in order to preserve its appearance and character. When interest in pedigree cat breeding began at the end of the 19th century and the first cat show was held at the Crystal Palace in London in 1871, hardly anyone was interested in the supposedly “wild” and original cat breeds. Anyone who was interested in a long-haired cat was primarily interested in a Persian.

One of the first wild type cats to be bred into a pure breed was the Maine Coon. Very similar in appearance to the Norwegian Forest Cat, it will always retain its rival status. And although it was not until 1983 that the Fifé was recognized in Europe, it is the better known and more common breed. In the USA, it has been increasingly bred again since the 1950s, after almost falling into oblivion at the beginning of the 20th century due to the rising popularity of other breeds, especially the Persian.

It was not until the early 1970s that some Norwegian breeders began to pay more attention to the “wild” cats of their homeland. One reason for this was undoubtedly the fact that the long-haired breed of native cats was becoming increasingly rare. Longhair is only inherited recessively. So it is not dominant! This meant that with increased mating between long-haired and short-haired cats, ultimately only cats with short coats would remain.

In 1973, the breeders and board members of the Norsk Rasekattklubbers Riksforbund (NRR) Carl Frederic Nordane and his wife Helen, together with the breeder Edel Runas, launched an appeal to all people with cats of the forest cat type to get in touch with them. Through the Persian breeder Sonya Borgel, contact was made with the couple Egil and Else Nylund, who owned cats that corresponded as closely as possible to the type they were looking for. Among them was the male cat: Pan's Trul, who was to become the progenitor of the breed.

From then on, everything happened very quickly. In 1974, the first planned mating took place between the aforementioned Pan's Trul and a cat from Edel Runas. In the following years, the breed was actively promoted at shows. The following year, 1975, the first club for Norwegian Forest Cats, the Norsk Skogkattring, was founded under the patronage of the Norwegian umbrella organization. Edel Runas and Mr. and Mrs. Nylund were of course among the founding members.

The selection of breeding cats was strict and the number of cats judged by the show judges to be genuine Norwegian Forest Cats was small! Nevertheless, further pure breeding succeeded in three generations, which is required by the Fifé before a new breed can be recognized. In 1977 the time had come. At the General Assembly of the Fifé in Paris, the breed received full recognition and, how could it be otherwise, Pan's Trul was registered as the first Norwegian Forest Cat.