Burmese

Pick up a Burmese and the first thing you notice is that it weighs more than it looks. The breed is often described as a brick wrapped in silk, and the description is exact: a compact, muscular, densely built cat under a short satin coat that lies close enough to show every line of the body underneath. The coat itself is one of the shortest and finest in the pedigree world, with almost no undercoat, which is why grooming amounts to a weekly pass with a rubber mitt and nothing else.

The classic colour is sable, a deep, warm, almost seal brown that catches light like polished wood, but blue, chocolate, lilac, red, cream and tortie all exist, and all show the same characteristic sheen. Eyes are large, round and gold to yellow, set in a rounded head that gives the breed a distinctly open, enquiring expression. Kittens are born paler and darken over the first year, so the colour you see at twelve weeks is not the colour you keep.

Temperament is the reason this breed has such devoted owners, and the reason it is so easy to get wrong. A Burmese is not merely affectionate; it is oriented towards people the way a dog is. It follows you from room to room, supervises what you are doing, sits on the desk while you work, gets into the bed, and greets visitors at the door rather than hiding from them. It plays hard, and it keeps playing well past the age at which most cats settle into dignified middle age. Owners of ten-year-old Burmese still report retrieving toy mice from under the sofa on a daily basis.

The voice is worth flagging. A Burmese is talkative, less piercing than a Siamese, lower and rounder in tone, but persistent, and used to make specific requests. If you dislike being addressed by a cat, this is not your breed. If you find it charming, you will get a great deal of it.

All of which brings us to the one hard constraint. A Burmese left alone in an empty flat for eight or nine hours a day is not a cat quietly making do. It is a highly social animal without an outlet, and the results are predictable: excessive vocalisation, obsessive attention-seeking when you return, and a talent for opening cupboards, unrolling toilet paper and rearranging anything portable. The breed's own registries are unusually direct about this. Where the household is out all day, home two. A pair of Burmese entertain each other, and the difference in behaviour is dramatic.

Physically the breed is a gift. The coat needs almost nothing, a weekly rubber mitt or a soft brush removes what little is shed, and a Burmese sheds noticeably less than most shorthairs. Nails need trimming every two to three weeks. Teeth need brushing, and here the breed earns a genuine warning: gingivitis and periodontal disease are more common in Burmese than in cats generally, and an established brushing habit from kittenhood is worth more than any dental treat on the market.

There are two other health items to raise with a breeder. Burmese head defect, a serious inherited craniofacial condition, is fatal in affected kittens and is managed by responsible breeders through DNA testing and careful pairing; ask directly whether the line is tested. Hypokalaemia, low blood potassium, causing episodic weakness and a characteristically drooping head and neck, has a known genetic basis in the breed and a straightforward DNA test. Diabetes mellitus also appears at above-average rates in some Burmese populations, which makes lean body condition and measured meals more than a cosmetic concern. Take that seriously: this is a food-motivated breed with a compact frame, and a kilogram of excess weight on a four-kilogram cat is a great deal.

Set against all that, the breed is long-lived, robust in daily life, cheap to groom and easy to travel with. It asks for one thing and asks for it constantly: your company. Give it, and few cats give more back.