"Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons. "

- Robertson Davies

Origins of Siamese Cats

This royal, mystical cat has a rich and long history behind it. It originally comes from Thailand (formerly known as Siam), and it is believed that the breed first made its way to Europe in 1884.

The first data about Siamese cats, including their description and depiction, appears in a collection of ancient manuscripts "Tamra Maew" ("The Cat-Book Poems"). It is estimated that the scripts have been written from the 14th to the 18th century and thought to originate from the Ayutthaya Kingdom.

Today these handwritings are preserved in National Library of Thailand, British Library and National Library of Australia. The poem in Tamra Maew describes Thai cats as being as rare as gold, and anyone that owns this cat will become wealthy.

In 1884, the British Consul-General Edward Blencowe Gould bought a breeding pair of cats from Bangkok as a gift for his sister, Lilian Jane Gould. The pair of cats, Pho and Mia, produced three Siamese kittens — Duen Ngai, Kalohom, and Khromata — who were shown with their parents that same year at London's Crystal Palace Show.

Over the next years, fanciers imported more cats from Thailand, which gradually formed the base breeding pool for the entire Siamese breed in the UK. It is believed that most British Siamese today are descended from about eleven of the original imports. As for the US, the first Siamese cat in America was reportedly given to Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes (the First Lady to the nineteenth president of the United States) in 1878 by the U.S. Consul, David Stickles, living the rest of its days in the White House.

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