Cattery Maison Mouton

Most cats have their mysteries, but there aren't
many breeds of cats owning a legend.

A long time ago several groups of Kittah-priests lived in the mysterious
land of Tibet. They adored the god Song-Hyo and the goddess
Tsun Kyan-Kse. They built wonderful places to worship their gods: beautiful
decorated temples covered with gold- leaf and surrounded
by high walls for protection. These high walls offered protection to
the priests and at the same time secured the hundred of white
cats that were kept in each temple. The cats played an important
role in the religion of the Kittah's: some of the priests had such
pure souls that they couldn't be missed on earth. When they died
the goddess transmitted the souls of the priests to the white cats.
In a temple built on the mountain Lugh lived a priest called Mun-Ha.
He was very religious so that it was said that the god Song-Hyo himself
created the tresses in Mun-Ha's golden beard. Mun-Ha's thoughts were
dedicated only to the god and the goddess of the soul-transmission: it
was the goddess who decided which of the priests' souls were allowed
to live again in the body of a sacred cat and it was she who
decided when this soul was transmitted to another Kittah-priest.
Tsun Kyan-Kse had sapphire eyes; the white cat Sinh who was
always at the side of his master Mun-Ha had golden eyes: a
reflection of his masters golden beard.

In an evil night the temple was attacked by a band of murderous Phoums
from Siam who killed Mun-Ha who was still meditating before
the golden statue of the goddess. Until his last moment he gazed into the
sapphire eyes of Tsun Kyan-Kse and then the miracle of the soul transmission
took place: Sinh jumped on the head of his fallen master and continued to gaze
into the eyes of the goddess. At that moment Sinh's eye colour changed into
sapphire just as radiant as the eyes of the goddess. His white fur changed into a
dark colour at the extremities of his body and a dark mask appeared on his face.
The rest of his body took on a golden colour except for his feet: they turned white
at the spots where his feet touched the hair of the old priest. Only once Sinh turned
his head towards the huge temple gate and the Kittah-priests managed to close the
gate so that further ransacking was stopped. For seven days and nights Sinh
remained seated there and gazed into the goddesses' eyes, neither eating nor
drinking. He died on the seventh day taking Mun-Ha's soul to Tsun Kyan-Kse.

TempleCats

It was seven days later when the Kittah-priests collected around
the statue of the goddess to decide who would become the successor of Mun-Ha.
All the temple cats appeared and all of them had Sinh's colouring pattern.
In utter silence the cats grouped themselves around the youngest of the Kittah-priests
and thus the goddess choose Mun-Ha's successor.

This is the legend of the Sacred Birman Cat: they have the brilliant blue
eyes of the goddess, the golden hue that reflected from both their master and
the golden statue of the goddess and with dark brown as a symbol of the impurity
of the earth: the wicked murder of the priest but with white feet as
a symbol of the purity of the soul.

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Origin

The modern history of the Birman is almost as
shrouded in mystery as it's legendary origin.
According to old cat literature a pair of Birmans
were shipped from Burma to France. The male died on the
boat, but the female, Sita, was pregnant
and gave birth to a litter of kittens in France.

From this small foundation the Birman was established in the
western world. One of Sita's kittens, Poupé de Madalpour,
is being showed in Paris in 1926 by Mme Marcelle Adam.

PoupeeDeMadalpour

By the end of WWII, only two Birmans were left alive in Europe and
a program of outcrossing was necessary to reestablish the breed.
Not a lot is know about this program, but almost certainly the
Persian longhair and Siamese were part of it.

In 1966 the Birman is recognized in England and
by the Cat Fanciers' Assiociation (CFA) in 1967.

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Breed standard

Body:

Slightly long body of medium weight. The legs are short and strong,
the paws are rounded. Males must be more massive than females.

Head:

A strong boned head with full, somewhat rounded cheeks. The forehead is
slightly rounded. The nose is of medium length without stop but with a slight indentation.
The chin is firm. The ears are rather small with rounded tips. They are set slightly
tipped not too upright on the skull with good width between.

Eyes:

Deep blue, not quite round and slightly oval.
ogen

Coat:

Long to semi-long according to the actual parts of the body: short on the
face, gradually growing longer on the cheeks to a full frill, long on the back
and the flanks. The texture is silky and there is little undercoat.

Colour:

The face, the ears, the paws, the genitals and the tail of the Sacred Birman
show the same points as e.g. the Siamese but all the feet are white. The white
on the feet should be in symmetry. The points should be in a good contrast to the
body colour. The body colour is a very pale eggshell, the back is golden beige in
all varieties. A fault are pure white patches on the chest or the belly. Only in adult
cats the colour of the points and the body colour are fully developed.

Feet:

The special feature of the Sacred Birman Cat is the white feet, called 'gloves'.
These gloves must be absolutely pure white. They should stop at the articulation
or at the transition of toes to metacarpals over which they should not extend.
Slightly longer white gloves on the hind feet can be tolerated. On the back of
the hind feet the white gloves end in points. The ideal 'gauntlets' end in
inverted V's end extend 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up the hock. Lower or higher
gauntlets are acceptable but should not go beyond the hock. It is important that the
gloves are equally long and show a symmetry of white, on either the two front
or two hind feet, or even better, on all the feet.

poten

Tail:

Of medium length, forming a plume.
staart

Remarks:

This standard describes, as in any other breed, the perfect look. Cats
without faults are rare but faults are easy recognized in a Birman.
Inequality is very easy to see in the white gloves.
When breeding it is very important to select cats with regular white
feet without forgetting the other features.
The beauty of the Birman is the overall harmony of the cat and this
should be kept in mind when judging.

Faults precluding the certificate:

White patching in the coloured areas or the reverse. A white patch
on the genitals. Creeping up of the white on the sides or the
reverse sides of the gloves of front and/or hind feet (known
as 'runners'). Absence of gauntlets on the hind feet.
Incompletely pigmented nose leather.

Scale of points:

Body: 20
Head and eyes (shape and colour): 20
Body colour and points: 15
Gloves front: 5
Gloves hind: 5
Gauntlets: 5
Uniformity and symmetry of gauntlets and gloves: 5
Tail: 10
Coat: 10
Condition: 5

Total 100

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Colour varieties

The Sacred Birman comes in these colours:
Seal point (darkbrown),
Chocolate point (milkchocolatebrown),
Blue point (bluegray),
Lilac point (light bluegray),
Red point (red) and
Creme point (lightred).