rex cats

The Cornish Rex is an amazing breed with a curly coat. Its history started in 1950s after a natural mutation took place and a male kitten with curly hair was born. This kitten was named Kallibunker.

Nina Ennismore, the owner of Kallibunker and Serena, a female cat who gave birth to him, decided to establish a new breed with a name Cornish Rex where Corhish is related to Cornwall, a county the breed emerged in.

The Devon rex were officially recognized as a separate breed in 1984 while their history began in 1950s. Initially, Devon Rex cats were registered under the Cornish Rex breed although they didn't share the same gene which made their hair curly. Due to this, the Devon Rex was given its own name and a status of an individual breed as it long deserved.

The German Rex breed naturally appeared in 1940s. The first cat of this breed was a black curly female which was domesticated by Dr. R. Scheuer-Karpin and named Lammchen. The cat fanciers society disregarded  the German Rex for several years till the Cornish Rex started to gain popularity in England i 1950s.

The breed establishment began in the USA in the early 1980s when a curly kitten was born in a barn of Linda and Richard Koehl. As the kitten produced even more curly kittens in the following years, farmers decided to establish a breed named LaPerm.

The history of the Selkirk Rex started in 1987 when Jeri Newman, the breed cultivator and a Persian breeder, was gifted with a curly feline. Newman started a breeding program pairing the curly cat with the Persian and then adding the Exotic, the British Shorthair and the American Shorthair.