ORIENTAL CATS

History
The Siamese cat was imported to Britain from Siiam in the later half of the 1800s. According to reports, both pointed and solid colours were imported. The gene that causes the color to be restricted to the points is a recessive gene, therefore the general population of the cats of Siiam were largely self (solid) colored. When the cats from Siiam were bred, the pointed cats were eventually registered as Siamese the others were referred to as "non-blue eyed siamese" or foreign shorthair.
It was not until 1977 that the Oriental Shorthair was accepted for competition into the CFA. In 1985, the CFA recognized the bicolor shothair. The bicolor is any one of the accepted oriental shothair color patterns with the addition of white to the belly, face, and legs/paws.

Appearance
The Oriental Shorthair is a self-coloured (non-pointed) member of the Siamese Family. They can be found in solid colors (white, red, cream, ebony, blue, chestnut, lavender, cinnamon, or fawn), smoke (white undercoat to any of the above except white), shaded (only the hair tips colored), party-color (red of cream splashes on any of the above), tabby (macrel/striped, ticked, spotted, and blotched/classic), and bi-colored (any of the above, with white). In total, there are over 300 color and pattern combinations possible.
Oriental Shorthairs have expressive, almond-shaped eyes, a wedge-shaped head with large ears that fit in the wedge of the head. Their bodies are very elegant yet muscular. When seeing an Oriental Shorthair, one would never guess them to be as solid as they are.