Size: Small to medium.
Coat Length(s): Short hair.
Body Type: Svelte.
Grooming Requirement: Little grooming needed.
Talkativeness: Very vocal.
Activity Level: Very high.
Affection: Very affectionate.
Usually Good With: Adults, seniors, and children (6+).
Time Alone: 4 to 8 hours per day.
Attention: Needs lots of attention.
Handling: Can be a handful.

Although the Oriental Shorthair wasn’t developed until the 1950s, its parent breed, the Siamese, has been around for centuries. In the past, blue-eyed, pointed-pattern cats were owned by religious leaders and royalty and were kept in Siam's temples and Royal Palace.

However, the breed we call Siamese was only one of several varieties native to that area. The Cat-Book Poems, a manuscript written in Siam (now Thailand) some time between 1350 and 1767, describes and shows a variety of native cats, including solid black, black and white bicolor, solid brown, solid blue (known also as gray), and shaded silver, as well as the royal cats bearing the pointed color pattern. In fact, the first cats imported to Britain from Thailand were often solid brown or blue. It wasn’t until the 1920s that the blue-eyed, pointed cat became the Siamese norm in Britain.

Today’s Oriental Shorthair is not a direct import from Thailand, but rather a Siamese hybrid. The breed’s creation was deliberate and planned. Breeders wanted a cat similar to the Siamese but in a wider range of colors and patterns. In the 1950s, British breeders crossed Siamese cats with domestic shorthairs and Russian Blues. In the late 1960s, American breeders, excited by the British success, crossed Siamese, domestic shorthairs and Abyssinians to create new colors. The sleek, lean body style of the Siamese was not sacrificed for color and pattern, and by crossing back to the Siamese the breeders preserved the body type and personality traits of the Siamese.

At first, some cat fanciers weren’t happy about the creation of yet another Siamese hybrid, since the Siamese has been used in the matrix of so many of our modern breeds, but soon the charming personality and striking colors and patterns of the new hybrid won over the opposition.

In 1972, CFA accepted the Oriental Shorthair for registration. In 1976, the breed was given provisional status, and only one year later was granted full championship status. Since then the Oriental Shorthair has rapidly increased in popularity. In recent years the Oriental Shorthair has consistently ranked high among the shorthaired breeds. Today, all North American associations recognize the Oriental Shorthair and now many Siamese breeders breed both Orientals and Siamese.

In 1995, two major changes occurred in CFA for the Oriental Shorthair. First, the Oriental Shorthair and the Oriental Longhair became a single breed called the Oriental. Before this time, the Oriental Longhair was a separate breed and therefore if two Oriental Shorthairs produced longhaired kittens (possible if both parents possessed the recessive longhair gene), those kittens could not be shown as either Oriental Longhairs or Oriental Shorthairs. Now offspring can be registered and shown in whatever division they belong.

Second, the CFA accepted a new color class—bicolor. Bicolors were previously relegated to the non-champion Any Other Variety (AOV) class. Now those cats can be shown for CFA championship. This decision doubled the number of accepted colors and patterns.

Oriental Shorthairs may be colorful works of art, but they are certainly not still-lifes. They are active, agile cats who enjoy a lively game of fetch with their human companions. Natural entertainers, OSHs seem to believe that anything worth doing is worth doing with enthusiasm. Their athletic antics will keep you entertained for hours. A tall cat tree is necessary if you want to keep your Oriental Shorthair from swinging from the drapes or tap-dancing on the top of the bookcases.

Active and playful even in their later years, OSHs are the epitome of the interactive cat. The Oriental Shorthair’s high intelligence and curiosity make them natural mischief makers, particularly if you aren’t around to entertain them. Expect to find them in your cupboards, drawers, closets and every other place you’d prefer they weren’t.

At the end of the day, however, they happily curl in your lap or by your side for a cuddle. While the Siamese demands your attention, the Oriental Shorthair craves it. Extremely people-oriented and trusting, with the proper attention and care the OSH grows into a loving, devoted companion. They usually bond with one person and become completely dedicated to him or her.

Like most Siamese-derived breeds, the Oriental Shorthair is not for those who work all day and have an active social life at night. They become deeply dependent upon their preferred person and can become unhappy or depressed if left alone too long or too often. Sharing your life with an OSH is a great responsibility, because once you form that intense emotional bond, this breed puts complete trust in you. Fanciers say betraying that trust can break an Oriental Shorthair’s heart. This is a trait they inherited—slightly modified—from the Siamese, a breed who spent hundreds of years being loved, honored and obeyed.

But given the required amount of love and attention, the Oriental Shorthair becomes your best buddy and repays you with a lifetime of love and affection. Expect your OSH to greet you at the door, paws kneading the floor in delight while loudly scolding you for your absence. The Oriental Shorthair’s tone is somewhat milder than that of the Siamese; however, this breed is still much more vocal than average and is not for the cat lover who also loves peace and quiet.

Oriental Shorthairs are usually healthy and if kept indoors can live up to 15 years or even longer. However, some Oriental Shorthair lines share the same genetic weaknesses as do some Siamese, since the OSH was created using the Siamese. The OSH is still outcrossed with the Siamese and the closely related Colorpoint Shorthair. Since these breeds share many characteristics, they also share some relatively common inheritable conditions and diseases. In particular, OSH are prone to plaque buildup, tartar formation, and gingivitis. Gingivitis can lead to the dental disease periodontitis (an inflammatory disease affecting the tissues surrounding and supporting the teeth), which can cause tissue, bone and tooth loss. Untreated, dental disease can cause infections that can travel to vital organs and undermine a cat’s overall health. Gingivitis can also be an indication of underlying disease, such as feline leukemia virus (FeLV). If your cat is prone to dental problems, she needs dental exams during her annual veterinary checkups, periodic professional teeth cleaning by your veterinarian as needed, and, if your cat will tolerate it, regular tooth brushing using cat toothpaste and a cat toothbrush (you can also use a soft child’s size toothbrush).

In addition, hereditary liver amyloidosis has been found in some lines of Orientals. This disease causes an insoluble protein called amyloid to be deposited in the liver, causing lesions, dysfunction, and eventual liver failure. Also, incidences of dilated cardiomyopathy, an enlargement of the heart muscle that decreases heart function, have been found in some lines of Siamese and closely related breeds like the OSH, but on the plus side they seem to be at a lower risk than some other breeds for the more serious and often fatal feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), according to Dr. Susan Little of the Winn Feline Foundation. Be sure buy from a breeder who provides registration papers and a written health guarantee.

Like the Siamese, the Oriental needs little grooming. However, regular grooming is good for your cat’s health because it gives you the opportunity to check for developing health problems. Also, gentle grooming provides some of the attention this breed craves.

The Oriental Shorthair comes in every kitty color you've ever imagined, and likely some you haven’t. As CFA’s breed standard says, the Oriental’s reason for being is the coat color whether it is solid, shaded, smoke, parti-color, bi-color or tabby patterned. Sometimes called "Ornamentals" because of the more than 300 possible combinations, the breed is essentially a Siamese not confined to the colorpoint pattern or the four traditional colors. OSHs may well be the most colorful cat breed on the planet—masterpieces who would have made Leonardo da Vinci proud.

The Oriental Shorthair has the Siamese body type—the ideal Oriental is a svelte cat with long, tapering lines, very lithe but muscular. She is fine-boned, elongated and tubular. The head is a long, tapering wedge in good proportion to body. The total wedge starts at the nose and flares out in straight lines to the tips of the ears, forming a triangle with no break at the whiskers. The neck is slender. Adult males weigh 7 to 10 pounds; adult females weigh 5 to 8 pounds. Show cats are in excellent condition and are not flabby, bony, or fat.

The ears are strikingly large, pointed, wide at the base, continuing the lines of the wedge. The legs are long and thin in good proportion to body with the hind legs higher than the front, and dainty, small, and oval paws.

The tail is long, tapering, and not kinked. The eyes are almond-shaped, medium in size, not crossed, and are either blue, green or odd-eyed, depending upon the coat color and pattern. The eyes are set not less than one eye width apart, with a slight slant toward the nose. The OSH can be outcrossed to the Siamese and the Colorpoint Shorthair.

This breed’s fine-textured coat is very short, soft, satin-like and close lying to the body. Colors and patterns are too numerous to name, but are divided into the classes of solid, shaded, smoke, parti-color, bicolor and tabby. This makes for a bewildering array of variables, but some colors are more common than others.

Although at cat shows you will see only the variety of OSH just described-the Extreme-two varieties exist, each with its own group of proponents. Regardless of which type you prefer, both make great pets. The Traditional Oriental Shorthair is a medium to large cat with a rounder, more moderate body and head type. The body is long, substantial and solid, and is neither cobby nor svelte in type, nor in any way extreme. The cat presents a well-balanced appearance with all elements in proportion. The overall impression should be of a cat who is robust and muscular but also graceful and lithe. The head is rounded and broad compared to the Extreme, although it still has that distinctive Oriental look. The ears are alert, not overly large, medium in length, almost as wide at the base as they are tall and rounded at the tip. Like the Extreme, the Traditional comes in over 300 color and patterns.

According to Traditional Oriental Shorthair fanciers, the Traditional Oriental is generally healthier than the Extreme OSH and has fewer of the Extreme’s health concerns.