The Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) was established in the United States in 1906. The CFA is currently the world's largest registry of pedigreed cats. Originally headquartered in

Manasquan, New Jersey Manasquan (, ) is a borough in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, on the Jersey Shore. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 5,938, an increase of 41 (+.7%) from the 2010 census count of 5,897, whi ...

the CFA moved to

Alliance, Ohio Alliance is a city in eastern Stark County, Ohio, United States. With a small district lying in adjacent Mahoning County, the city is approximately northeast of Canton, southwest of Youngstown and southeast of Cleveland. The population was 2 ...

in 2010. The association's stated mission is preserving and promoting pedigreed breeds of cats while also enhancing the well-being of all cats. CFA's first licensed cat shows were held in Buffalo, New York and Detroit, Michigan in 1906. The association today has a known presence in Europe, China, and Japan along with its well-established activity in the United States and Canada. CFA has grown during the last century and celebrated its centennial in 2006. In 2022, CFA recognized 42 breeds for its Championship Class and three in its non-competitive classes (the Khao Manee, Lykoi, and Toybob). The current president of the CFA is Richard Mastin.

List of CFA recognized pedigreed cats

By alphabetical order according to breed division: * A -

Abyssinian cat The Abyssinian is a breed of domestic short-haired cat with a distinctive "ticked" tabby coat, in which individual hairs are banded with different colors. They are also known simply as Abys. The source of the name is not because Ethiopia, for ...

American Bobtail The American Bobtail is an uncommon breed of domestic cat which was developed in the late 1960s. It is most notable for its stubby "bobbed" tail about one-third to one-half the length of a normal cat's tail. This is the result of a cat body type ...

American Curl The American Curl is a breed of cat characterized by its unusual ears, which curl back from the face toward the center of the back of the skull. The breed originated in Lakewood, California, as the result of a spontaneous mutation. History The fi ...

American Shorthair The American Shorthair (ASH) is a breed of domestic cat believed to be descended from European cats brought to North America by early settlers to protect valuable cargo from mice and rats. According to the Cat Fanciers' Association, in 2020, it ...

- American Wirehair * B - Balinese (including Javanese) -

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

Birman The Birman, also called the "Sacred Cat of Burma",
Retrieved 16 April 2010 is a domestic Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

British Shorthair The British Shorthair is the pedigreed version of the traditional British domestic cat, with a distinctively stocky body, dense coat, and broad face. The most familiar colour variant is the "British Blue", with a solid grey-blue coat, orange eyes, ...

- Burmese -

Burmilla The Burmilla is a breed of domestic cat that originated in the United Kingdom in 1981. It is a cross between the Chinchilla Persian and Burmese cats. Standards were produced in 1984, and the breed gained championship status in the United K ...

* C -

Chartreux The Chartreux is a rare breed of cat from France, and is recognised by a number of registries around the world. The Chartreux is large and muscular (called ''cobby'') with relatively short, fine-boned limbs, and very fast reflexes. They are know ...

Colorpoint Shorthair Colorpoint Shorthairs are a variety of domestic cats. Depending on the cat registry, they may be considered a separate breed of cat, or more often a variant of a pre-existing one, if accepted at all. These cats are distinguished by their confor ...

Cornish Rex The Cornish Rex is a breed of domestic cat. The Cornish Rex has no hair except for down. Most breeds of cat have three different types of hair in their coats: the outer fur or " guard hairs", a middle layer called the " awn hair"; and the down ...

* D - Devon Rex * E -

Egyptian Mau Egyptian Maus are a small to medium-sized short-haired cat breed. They are one of the few naturally spotted breeds of domesticated cat. The spots of the Mau occur on only the tips of the hairs of its coat. It is considered a rare breed. Character ...

European Burmese The Burmese cat ( my, ဗမာကြောင်, ''Băma kyaung'', th, ทองแดง or ศุภลักษณ์, or , meaning copper colour) is a breed of domestic cat, originating in Burma, believed to have its roots near the Th ...

Exotic Exotic may refer to: Mathematics and physics * Exotic R4, a differentiable 4-manifold, homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to the Euclidean space R4 *Exotic sphere, a differentiable ''n''-manifold, homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to the ordinar ...

* H -

Havana Brown The Havana Brown was the result of a planned breeding between Siamese and domestic black cats, by a group of cat fanciers in England, in the 1950s. Early breeders introduced a Siamese type Russian Blue into their breeding. However, using curren ...

* J -

Japanese Bobtail The Japanese Bobtail is a breed of domestic cat with an unusual bobtail more closely resembling the tail of a rabbit than that of other cats. The variety is native to Japan, though it is now found throughout the world. The breed has been know ...

* K - Khao Manee - Korat * L -

LaPerm The LaPerm is a breed of cat. A LaPerm's fur is curly (hence the name " perm"), with the tightest curls being on the throat and on the base of the ears. LaPerms come in many colors and patterns. LaPerms generally have a very affectionate personal ...

- Lykoi * M - Maine Coon - Manx * N -

Norwegian Forest Cat The Norwegian Forest cat ( no, Norsk skogskatt and ) is a breed of domestic cat originating in Northern Europe. This natural breed is adapted to a very cold climate, with a top coat of long, glossy, water-shedding hair and a woolly undercoat ...

* O -

Ocicat The Ocicat is an all-domestic breed of cat which resembles a wild cat but has no recent wild DNA in its gene pool. The breed is unusual in that it is spotted like a wild cat but has the temperament of a domestic animal This page gives a list of ...

Oriental The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of '' Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the ...

* P - Persian (including Himalayan) * R - Ragamuffin -

Ragdoll The Ragdoll is a breed of cat with a distinct colorpoint coat and blue eyes. Its morphology is large and weighty, and it has a semi-long and silky soft coat. American breeder Ann Baker developed Ragdolls in the 1960s. They are best known for the ...

Russian Blue The Russian Blue Cat (russian: Русская голубая кошка, Russkaya golubaya koshka), commonly referred to as just Russian Blue, is a cat breed with colors that vary from a light shimmering silver to a darker, slate grey. The shor ...

* S -

Scottish Fold The Scottish Fold is a breed of domestic cat with a natural dominant gene mutation that affects cartilage throughout the body, causing the ears to "fold", bending forward and down towards the front of the head, which gives the cat what is of ...

Selkirk Rex The Selkirk Rex is a breed of cat with highly curled hair. Background The Selkirk Rex is distinct from all other Rex breeds. Unlike the Devon Rex and Cornish Rex, the hair is of normal length and not partly missing. There are longhair and short ...

- Siamese -

Siberian Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

- Singapura -

Somali Somali may refer to: Horn of Africa * Somalis, an inhabitant or ethnicity associated with Greater Somali Region ** Proto-Somali, the ancestors of modern Somalis ** Somali culture ** Somali cuisine ** Somali language, a Cushitic language ** Somali ...

- Sphynx * T - Toybob - Tonkinese -

Turkish Angora The Turkish Angora ( tr, Ankara kedisi, "Ankara cat") is a breed of domestic cat. Turkish Angoras are one of the ancient, natural breeds of cat, having originated in central Anatolia (modern-day Turkey, Ankara region). The breed has been document ...

Turkish Van The Turkish Van (pronounced Von) is a naturally occurring breed of domestic cat that originated in the Lake Van area of modern-day Turkey, part of Armenian Highlands. The Van is classified as a semi-long hair, but it has two lengths of hair, de ...

Services

The CFA offers a number of services to catteries,

purebred Purebreds are " cultivated varieties" of an animal species achieved through the process of selective breeding. When the lineage of a purebred animal is recorded, that animal is said to be "pedigreed". Purebreds breed true-to-type which means the ...

feline owners, and the general public. One service the CFA offers is certified pedigree lists for registered cats. Registered cat pedigrees going back from three to six generations are available.

Catteries

Breeding catteries register their cattery name following the CFA naming standards. Certificates are awarded to Catteries of Excellence that meet strict health codes for the cats and their environment. As of this writing, 40 catteries meet these requirements. Riversiderags is the only Ragdoll cattery at present to make this award from both TICA and CFA. PaJean Cattery, an iconic cattery devoted to Persian cats, has produced the most long-haired Grand Champions in the world, 2nd in the world for both long hair and short hairs combined, and the most Cat of the Year honors. The cattery was founded by Pamela Bassett and her mother, the late Jean Bassett.

Other activities

CFA recognizes 42 pedigreed breeds for showing in the Championship Class and three breeds as Miscellaneous (this became effective with the 2016-17 show season). Since 1994, the CFA has hosted the

CFA International Cat Show The CFA International Cat Show is a cat show hosted by the Cat Fanciers' Association. The Cat Fanciers' Association was founded in 1906 after it separated from the American Cat Association. The CFA International Cat Show has been held on an a ...

, described as the " Rolls-Royce of cat shows", the largest of its kind in the U.S.. Despite being cancelled in 2007 and 2010, the CFA International made a comeback in 2011 as the CFA World Show in Indianapolis, Indiana and has boasted renewed entries and interest since its re-branding and the acquisition of corporate sponsorships. In 2015, the show's name was restored to the CFA International Cat Show. Other activities of the CFA include setting breed standards and offering breeding guidelines, training show judges, promoting and inspecting catteries, supporting and publicizing research on cat health issues, influencing legislative issues, providing disaster relief and breed rescue programs, publishing books and magazines and informing the general public on topics relating to cats.

Description of CFA Cat Shows and Titles

While no two shows are identical, CFA cat shows follow certain procedures and guidelines: A CFA cat show actually consists of a number of simultaneous cat shows running at the same time within the same place. Depending on the size of the show, there are anywhere from 4 to 12 "rings" (or miniature shows) which generally run 1 to 2 days in length. Each "ring" has its own judge who independently scores cats and awards the top 10 places (or top 15 depending on the size of the show). Rings are of two kinds: * "All Breed" rings allow cats of every breed approved by the CFA to be judged...from Sphynx to Persian and everything in between. * "Specialty" rings separate out cats into one of two types: the "Longhair" category include cats like Persians, Maine Coons, and other long-haired cats, while the "Shorthair" include Burmese, Sphynx, American Shorthair and other short-haired cats. Points are awarded to cats based on percentages of the number of cats "beaten" in the ring, determined according to their placement in the final (for national/regional points) or out of the number of champions/premiers in show (for grand points). * At the end of each show season, the top 25 cats in the organization with the most points for the show season are awarded the coveted title of "National Winner" (NW). * Cats in the top 25 of their "region" are awarded the prestigious title of "Regional Winner" (RW). There are nine regions in the CFA, with regions 1-7 consisting of various American states and Canadian provinces, divided by geography and relative population, while regions 8 and 9 consist of the entirety of Japan and Europe, respectively. All other countries (including China) compete under the International Division. * Adult cats who are not neutered and achieve a point ranking of over 200 points are awarded the title of "Grand Champion". * Neutered cats can be shown in a class called "Premier" and achieve the title of "Grand Premier". * Cats which meet the standards of the breed as confirmed by six judges at one show are awarded a "winners ribbon" by each judge and are awarded the lowest title of "Champion". * Kittens from the age of 4 to 8 months compete in a separate "Kitten" class, and are also able to achieve the title of "National Winner" and "Regional Winner", but can not become Grand Champions or Grand Premiers until reaching adulthood at 8 months of age. * Adult cats being shown at a show with no existing title are referred to as "Open", although they are still eligible to compete for grand points.

References

External links

* {{Cat nav Cat registries Organizations established in 1906 Organizations based in Akron, Ohio Cats in the United States 1906 establishments in the United States Clubs and societies in the United States