American Shorthair

The American Shorthair is frequently confused with the ordinary domestic shorthair, and the confusion is understandable: both descend from the working cats that arrived in North America on European ships, kept for their ability to control rodents around grain and cargo. The difference is that from the late nineteenth century some of those cats were selected and bred deliberately for a particular type, a broad, open face, round eyes, a strong muzzle, a dense coat that stands up to weather, and above all a temperament calm enough to live comfortably alongside people. A pedigree American Shorthair gives you predictability. A moggy from a shelter gives you a wonderful cat and a lottery ticket.

Physically this is a solid, muscular animal built for endurance rather than sprinting. The body is medium to large, level along the back, with a broad chest and legs of moderate length, heavier and more workmanlike than a Domestic Shorthair, less rounded and cobby than a British Shorthair. The coat is short but genuinely dense, designed to shed rain and resist cold, and it comes in a very wide range of colours and patterns. The one everybody pictures is the silver classic tabby: pale silver ground, dense black markings, and the distinctive bullseye swirl on each flank.

Maturation is slow. An American Shorthair takes about three years to fill out completely, so a fifteen-month-old cat that looks lanky is usually just unfinished. Lifespan is a genuine strength: fifteen to twenty years is realistic in a well-kept indoor cat, and the breed has few of the structural problems that shorten life in more extreme types.

The temperament is the selling point, and it is remarkably consistent. This is a cat with a sense of proportion. It is affectionate but not clingy, it will sit next to you rather than on you, and it accepts being alone during the working day with less protest than most breeds. It is playful in short, cheerful bursts well into adulthood, without the relentless drive of an Abyssinian or a Rex. It is quiet, using its voice sparingly. It is notably tolerant of children, dogs, other cats, visitors and noise, and it adapts to change with minimal fuss. If you want one word for it, the word is unflappable.

Grooming is straightforward. A weekly brush through the dense coat removes loose hair and reduces both hairballs and the amount of fur on your furniture, and a second session during the spring moult is worth adding. Nails need trimming every two to three weeks. Teeth need brushing several times a week, the breed has no special dental vulnerability, but nor does it have any special protection.

The real management task for this breed is weight, and it is not a minor footnote. American Shorthairs are enthusiastic, unfussy eaters descended from cats that ate whatever they caught, they have a placid disposition, and they are typically kept indoors with everything provided. That combination produces obesity with depressing reliability, and obesity in a cat brings arthritis, diabetes, urinary problems and an inability to groom its own back end. The answer is not complicated: two or three measured meals a day instead of a full bowl, a monthly weight recorded somewhere you will see it, ribs checked by feel each week, and two ten-minute play sessions a day even when the cat looks content to skip them. Puzzle feeders help more with this breed than with almost any other, because they turn eating back into work.

Health otherwise is good. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy occurs, as in most breeds, and breeding cats should be echocardiogram-screened; ask for dates. Polycystic kidney disease has been reported occasionally and is DNA-testable. Beyond that, expect an ordinary, robust cat with a long life and a good chance of reaching its late teens, which, on the evidence of this index, is about as much as anyone can reasonably ask.