The Devon Rex History

The first devon rex was born in 1959 and discovered by the cat world in 1960.
His parents were a tortiseshell female and probably a curly tomcat that the
local people had spotted living in a deserted tin mine in the area.
.
M iss Beryl Cox, who owned the mother of this strange kitten,
decided to keep him.
The kitten was named Kirlee.
I n those years the cornish rex breed was already known
and bred by a few passionate breeders.
M iss Cox contacted Brian Dtirling Webb, who was breeding
cornish rex when she saw a picture of his curly cat in a newspaper.
Mr Webb persuded Miss Cox to sell Kirlee to him so he could be used
as a stud in his breeding program.

Kirlee's kittens were eagerly waited but an unexpected surprise happened !
All kittens were straight-haired - no curls at all.
Many times Kirlee was bred to the other curly cats but always only
straight-haired kittens were born.
It became obvious that Kirlee's curly coat was caused by a different genetic
variation than the curly coat seen in the other rex (cornish) cats.
K irlee's genetic variation was referred to as "gene ii" rex,
later known as the devon rex.
T he other curly cats (referred to as "gene i" rex)
were known as cornish rex cats.
T he two breeds were separated from that time forward.

I n 1967, Great Britain's governing council of the cat fancy (GCCF) recognized
the distinction between the 2 breeds and allowed them to be shown as different
breeds with distinctly different standards of perfection for each of them.

Links
The planet devon devon rex history