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NORSK SKOGKATT

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X-color discussion
1. DEKZV Black Modifier Proposal
The International Secretary page
Jette's notes at the end of this report

This Year's World Show meeting was short but congenial. We didn't have the coziest of settings - chairs were lacking, so everyone had to stand, and there was quite a bit of noise. Nevertheless, we managed to deal with the major issues that have come up since Helsinki last year.

I. Color Divisions

To begin with we mentioned the Czech Republic's proposal at the last FIFé General Assembly to divide up the show groups of all breeds. This would have meant that every color would be judged in its own individual group. For instance, Forest Cats of Group 4 would be subdivided into blue tabbies/white and black tabbies/white. This is nothing new, for instance, to LOOF breeders in France, where the tabbies are further divided according to coat pattern - blotched, mackerel, ticked. The proposal was withdrawn, rather than defeated, implying that it may be brought up again in 2004.

In general, the breeders at the meeting were unperturbed at this prospect, some even expressing the hope that it would soon come to pass. There were 322 Forest Cats at this World Show, 68 of them in Group 4. Obviously, a change of some kind is due!

II. FIFé Breed Councils

Next we spoke briefly about the recently instituted FIFé Breed Councils. These have been set up to provide for the participation of informed breeders in advising the General Assembly on standards, breeding, and show rules.

Breeders have been pushing for years to be allowed a more direct voice in matters concerning their breeds: this is a first step in the right direction. The first bree
opportunity to influence any decisions that may be made about our breed, and it is hoped that our most qualified breeders will want to participate.

Details may be read on the FIFé site, http://www.fifeweb.org/news/BreCou.html, and the Breed Councils Information Website, http://home.worldonline.dk/tamstudi/fife-bc/. In brief, individual breeders may apply by downloading the form provided on the site, filling it in, and sending it, along with Euros, to the chairman of their local FIFé association. An excerpt from the application form follows here (but you need to download the entire form if you want to sign up - it is available in English, French, and German):

Since this report was written, the NFO Breed Council has been formed. Applications are still welcome for 2004; new members may participate in all discussions, but may not vote on proposals until next year.
NFO Breed Council Barbro Åberg Kir Andersen Susanne Høj Andersen Inger Andersson Pia Børgensen Henrik Buusman Lisa Crowe Ylva Ehrenbåge Maren Eide Ermisch-Bangen Evi Faulhaber Jörgen Frithiof Neil Gardner Johanna Grebner Annemarie Gstir Birgit Hartoft Nicole Heitbrink Maria Hofstätter Siv Monika Johnsen Annika Jonsson Anne Köhn Sonja Krieger Martin Kristensen Karin Kronvall M. A. Lamers	M. A. Lamers Frank Langewische Ingrid Leiswall Bette Lind Jette Eva Madsen Anna Mandolesi Andras Munk-Madsen Carina Santana Olofsson Maud Olsen Alexander Platz Eva Porat Thierry Roland Katja Schmatz Agneta Sjöblom Katarina Strahl Kristina Strömberg Berit Thayser Christa Utescheny Ulrike Wahl Eva Walter Elvira Walz Renée Weissbach Judith Zuurveld Paula Swepston, BC Secretary

• 'I certify that I have bred and registered, with a FIFe member, at least 3 litters of the above breed, within the last 5 years.


• I certify that I have exhibited a cat of the above breed, owned by myself, at FIFe shows at least 3 times a year for the last 3 years.


• I certify that I have bred at least one grand international champion / grand international premier in the above breed.'

The following quotation from the FIFé page describes a little more fully the way the councils are meant to function:

'Suggestions and opinions from the members of each Breed Council are to be forwarded to the elected secretary of the specific Breed Council. The Breed Council secretary will evaluate these proposals and obtain the opinions of other members of the particular breed in an annual poll to be taken before December of each calendar year.

To be eligible to forward proposals, the Breed Council must consist of members from at least 6 different FIFé members.

Notwithstanding the fact that the Breed Council serves the General Assembly in an advisory capacity, the approval of a b majority of the members voting in the specific Breed Council(s) affected must be obtained.

The proposals of the Breed Council accepted in the way described above have to be forwarded in all 3 FIFé languages to the respective commission, (Health and Welfare Commission, Judges and LO Commission), by the end of January each calendar year. They must also have the approval with a 2/3 majority of the commission concerned, to be eligible as a proposal for the General Assembly.'

III. X-colors: Proposal by Dr. Frank W. Langewische

By far the largest part of the discussion was devoted to the X-colors - specifically to an article Jette Eva Madsen had received by e-mail the evening before the World Show. This article, written in German by Dr. Frank W. Langewische, gives a bit of history about the X-colors and the test matings performed, and deals with Dr. Langewische's proposal to find names for the colors and incorporate them into the NFO color palette as groups 10 (without white) and 11 (with white). The name Dr. Langewische suggests for the colors is 'Fuchs' ('fox', in English), with the letter 'u' (for 'unique') being used for the EMS code designation. The present group was not enthusiastic about this nomenclature. It was speculated that the term 'fox' must have been chosen because of the reddish hue imposed by the new-color gene on the colors black and blue, but some people thought it called to mind the pointed face of the fox.

The article cites the names of three breeders from the German Waldkatzen Interessengemeinschaft (among others), who were meant to be supporting it. Martin Kristensen, speaking on behalf of Ulrike Wahl, president of the I.G., informed the group that Ulrike's name should not have been included, as she had not even heard of the proposal.

The proposal aims at a recognition show in Germany, leading to acceptance in all colors, with and without silver.

[Update: A recognition show for the NFO X-colors took place 17-18 January 2004 in the German town Neuenhausen. Participating judges were Mmes. Uddin, Renault, Kytlerova, Nissen, Hämäläinen, and Waller, and Mr. Stoop. 28 new-color cats were shown, and Dr. Langewische presented his arguments for acceptance. According to the official protocol of the recognition show, the panel felt that 'the genetics of these colours was not clear to us, we believe that it needs to be studied even more. The opinion of the Norwegian Forest Cat BC must be heard too before taking any further steps in recognition of these colours.'

Personal impressions of the show: About the X-color proposal. In the final version of the 1. DEKZV proposal, the new colors would now be called 'Amber' & 'Light Amber' and designated by the EMS code 'Bm'. Full text of the proposal in German, English, & French: Black Modifier Proposal]

Opinion at the meeting was skeptical, and most were in favor of proceeding cautiously. Jette Eva Madsen suggested starting gradually, with the colors that are easiest to recognize, not rushing to accept them all at once, and mentioned the Persian breeders, who began slowly when they wanted to branch out. (She writes about this in more detail in an addendum to this report.)

Katja Schmatz of Germany reported that members of the German Breed Commission were present at the meeting held to discuss this matter of the X-colors. She feels that acceptance would be an advantage for those who are against the colors as well as for their supporters, because if they are recorded in the pedigrees, breeders will be able to make their own choices about whether or not to work with them. She also remarked on the variety of color names borne by Wildwood's Imer during the course of his career. At first he was called 'blue mackerel tabby', later he was re-registered as 'lilac': currently he is registered as a 'blue golden' - his fourth color (sorry, I didn't catch what the third one was) - so that he may be get his certificates in an accepted color division. X-color cats are also being shown in the Netherlands as goldens.

It was remarked by various breeders that the test matings should be repeated in a scientific manner, that first results should not be accepted as definitive.

Jette made the point that the various countries should work together on this matter, and noted that the X-color breeders seem never to have shown much interest in communicating with breeders outside their own circle. They have never made an appearance at any of the World Show meetings, where they would have been able to present their arguments to an international forum. Now the current project arrives as 'finished product' from Germany; the X-color people seem to keep a closed shop.

It was generally felt that this matter would be a good first project for the new NFO Breed Council to tackle as soon as possible, and that it should be up to the council to organize an event where X-color breeders could be invited to present their cats and engage in discussion with other breeders of various nationalities.

[Update: The way the rules are set up, BC proposals must be voted on within the council by the end of December, and presented to FIFé by the end of January. No provision was made for this first year, when the various breed councils were just being set up and secretaries chosen at the end of December. Therefore, if the rules are followed strictly, the NFO Breed Council may find its hands tied with regard to the German proposal. FIFé president Eric Reijers is on record as hoping that no country will make proposals concerning type or color of any breed until next year, when the councils will have had a chance to review them. For the moment, we are waiting and hoping for the best. - Paula, 25/01/04]

[Further update on the colors: Those readers who participate in the FIFé e-mail group discussions will be aware that this same color phenomenon has been reported in some Bengalis and Ocicats, but they are registered with the traditional names blue and black tabby. If this is true, it would certainly be interesting to compare these cats to the x-color Norwegians. If we are talking about the same gene, then it could not properly be said that the 'fox' color is 'unique' to the Forest Cat. Another reason to be patient just a little longer....- Paula, 25/01/04]

IV. Skogkatt of the Year

One breeder wondered if there couldn't be a differentiation in point values between those received in countries like Spain, where it is relatively easy, and others like Denmark, where it can be extremely difficult to win a certificate. Martin Kristensen, one of the originators of the Skogkatt of the Year project, stated that he and the others worried over this at the beginning, but couldn't figure out a way to do it fairly - where to draw the line. In any case, he thinks it will only be a couple of more years before Sweden and Norway drop the quarantine rules. This should help to even things out.

V. Jette's plea for conscientious breeding and awareness of our responsibility

In closing, Jette remarked on the progress we have made with the Forest Cat in the past ten years. It is now close to being the best-known of all pedigree cats in many countries, and this gives us a lot of power, and also an enormous responsibility, not only to the Forest Cat itself, but to the whole cat fancy. We have to stay "clean" at all times, and be conscious of the fact that all eyes, those of the press, those of our governments, of the European Union, are on the NFO. We don't want pedigreed cats in general to get a bad name because of genetic or health problems that might crop up within our breed. She feels that Forest Cat breeders need to work more intensively within FIFé, sign up for the Breed Council, co-operate from one country to another.

Jette writes about this at greater length in her addendum to this report - see below.

She also brought up the point that more than 100 cats of a given breed at a FIFé show qualifies that breed for its own Best in Show competition. It seems that this has been known to happen with Persian cats; perhaps we should push for it for Forest Cats as well. Interesting possibility. I imagine you have to ask for this just after the deadline for entries, as soon as it is known how many Forest Cats are expected. Semi-longhair judges would have to be prepared to do an extra BIS event.

VI. Congratulations to the new NFO World Winner

We did get a beautiful new Forest Cat World Winner this year, EC WW2003 S*Lisjöskogen's Bishop, bred by Kicki Johansson of Sweden and owned by Kerstin Skogman. And very proud he looks, too, in the portrait above. (Photo, copyright Asa Petre of Denmark.)

VII. See you in Vienna!

As I said at the beginning, this was a short meeting, but I do think the points brought up were important ones. We called an early halt, because it was becoming difficult to hear each other talk - but we look forward to getting to getting together again next year. The 2004 World Show is scheduled for 12-14 November 2004 in Vienna, Austria. See you there, in three-quarter time!

Report by Paula Swepston©, International Skogkatt Secretary

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Addendum

Some final thoughts
on topics discussed at the World Show meeting

by Jette Eva Madsen

The x-colors

It is important to emphasize that the x-colors are a vital issue for all of us, not just for those breeders presently working with the colors or those with pedigrees featuring Kløfterhagen's Babuschka.

There is no way we can make the x-colors go away, and they are now so widespread that banning them would lead to the exclusion of around 50% of our breeding cats. That would be very unhealthy for the breed and is obviously not a viable solution.

In the interest of the Forest Cat's good reputation, it is essential that the recognition of these colors cause as few problems as possible. Also, it is important that the colors be given a name that sounds sensible in all languages and does not call up strange associations.

To date, it seems that test matings have only been performed with cats descended from Kløfterhagens Babuschka. It is necessary, therefore, that the final proposal for recognition specify that only cats stemming from Kløfterhagens Babuschka may be registered as x-colored. If this is not taken into consideration, there is the risk that a mating between two supposedly x-colored cats might produce normal full-colored offspring. This is a real possibility, because so far, the x-color group seems to have served as a kind of dustbin for any strangely-colored cat that did not fit readily into the existing color groups.

Until now it has proved very difficult for breeders and judges to recognize the x-colored cats. Not only has there been the problem of deciding whether they are cinnamon, chocolate or something else, it has also been difficult to tell whether they are with or without silver. In order to avoid confusion as much as possible, it would be a good idea to approve the colors in, for instance, 3 steps, so that breeders and judges might become more familiar with them.

I assume there will be 12 basic color classifications, plus their variations with white and with 3 different tabby patterns:

1. Black and blue
2. black tortie, blue tortie, red and cream
3. black smoke, blue smoke, black tortie smoke, blue cream smoke, red smoke, cream smoke

I suggest that group 1 be approved as the first step, and that when we are familiar with that group and can identify the colors easily, we proceed to group 2 and later to group 3. The x-colors of the third group are possibly the most difficult to recognize, just as smokes and silvers already cause the most confusion among the traditional colors.

Since the Norwegian Forest Cat has a very large Breed Council, I suggest its members be informed of this matter, and that its advice be taken into consideration as early as possible.

The growing size of the Forest Cat breed

Since the breed has now grown to a size approaching that of the Longhair group of the good old days, and since Forest Cats outnumber other breeds at many shows in northern Europe, there have been several suggestions as to how show procedures might be changed to facilitate the winning of certificates.

Best in Show challenges in the semi-longhair group

The difficulty of achieving a Best in Show in the semi-longhair group in northern Europe was emphasized at the World Show in Copenhagen. The c. 650 cats in the semi-longhair category were obliged to share one BIS panel, while the remaining 750 cats were spread among 3 panels.

One possibility to guarantee a better balance would be to change the FIFé show system to allow all breeds with more than a certain number of entries (i.e., 100) to have their own Best in Show. This would ensure that the exhibitors making the biggest contribution to the show would receive the treatment to which their breed is properly entitled.

Challenges within the NFO colour groups

For the very large breeds it might also be a good idea to change the system of show groups. The show system has to serve both the new exhibitors who may experience difficulties obtaining a certificate, and the hard-core exhibitors who think it is fine to have 10 cats competing for the same point. For this reason, it might be wise to consider finding a new form of dividing the Forest Cat show classes. A suggestion follows here:

Black Black/white Blue/white Black tabby Blue tabby Black tabby/white Blue tabby/white

Cream Red/white Cream/white

Black smoke, black silver Blue smoke, blue silver Black smoke, black tabby/white Blue smoke, blue silver/white Black tortie smoke, black tortie silver Black tortie smoke, black tortie silver/white Blue cream tortie, blue cream silver Blue cream tortie, blue cream silver/white Red smoke Red smoke/white Cream smoke Cream smoke/white

White

In order to avoid confusion over the kind of tabby pattern or the amount and distribution of white, I suggest that for these we continue with the divisions we have been using already.

The challenge facing the largest breed!

All breeders are responsible not only for the well-being of their own cats but for that of the entire breed with which they work. As breeders of one of the most popular cats around we are very exposed, and right now the size of our breed has led to the popular perception in many countries (Denmark, for instance) that the term "pedigree cat" is synonymous with 'Forest Cat'.

This means that if anything goes wrong with our breed, such as a serious hereditary defect, the whole cat fancy is seriously affected, since public opinion will project our problems onto the whole pedigree cat world.

Some of us remember some 15 years back, when the storm started over Persian cats, which were generally considered to be 'the real pedigree cats'. At that time Persians had a variety of problems and no matter how hard we tried to explain that our breed did not have the same problems it was extremely difficult to change or even influence public opinion.

The present size of our breed means that we have a responsibility to place even more emphasis on the health and well-being of our cats, in order to guarantee that public opinion does not turn once more against pedigreed cats.

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