Manx Cats

There are a number of mythical tales surrounding the origins of the Manx cat, such as Noah cutting off its tail with the door of the Ark as the rain began to fall. Many stories of the origin of the Manx are found in cat and mythology books. In many of these tales the Manx are descended from ship's cats who were shipwrecked on the Isle of Man when their ships were sunk off the coast. A commonly told story is the legend from the early 1600s of two ships from the Spanish Armada that were sunk off Spanish Point near Port Erin. The Isle of Man was the refuge for the tailless cats from these two ships. Another legend has it that the cat came from a ship wrecked in 1806 off Jurby Point, while another says it was a Baltic ship wrecked off Castle Rushen and Calf Island.

In actuality, Manx cats originated on the Isle of Man, off the coast of Great Britain, among a population of cats whose common ancestry sprang from the same roots as the British Shorthair. A spontaneous mutation occurred at some point several hundred years ago, which created kittens born without the vertebrae that form the tail of normal cats. With the passage of centuries and due to the isolation of the cats from outside breeding, the taillessness eventually became a common characteristic among the Isle of Man cats, because the mutated gene is a dominant trait.

Besides taillessness, the Manx is known for its robust and rounded appearance. This breed can actually be drawn with a series of circles! It has a very round head and rounded cheeks which give it a jowly appearance; even more so in the male cat than in the female. It is high in the hindquarters with the back legs much longer than the forelegs, thus causing the rump to be higher than the shoulders. The shortness of back forms a continuous arch from shoulders to rump. The eyes are rounded but set at a slight tilt toward the ear. The “Manxie” should have a sweet expression.

We have lots of products that may interest you in our shop dedicated to the Manx Cat