The Norwegian Forest Cat
Ambassadors of Affection
Legend has it a pair of huge cats pulled the chariot of the sun goddess Freya. There are also tales of an encounter between Thor, the mighty god of thunder, and a cat of such weight Thor could lift only one of it’s paws off the ground. Giant furry troll cats populate early fairy tales. When translators substituted the word skogkatt for the troll, they unwittingly named a new cat breed. Norsk Skogkatt translates to Norwegian Forest Cat, a beautiful rugged breed with a laid-back personality.
For thousands of years the Norwegian Forest Cat graced the forests and farms of its native land virtually unnoticed. Then at a 1938 cat show in Oslo, Europe’s burgeoning cat fancy became enthralled with it. Breeders quickly realized the distinct breed was rapidly disappearing as the free-roaming cats interbred with other domestics. Unfortunately, World War II interrupted any efforts to save the breed. The Norwegian Forest Cat again slipped into obscurity.
In 1975 the few breeders who had tenaciously worked with the breed formed the Norsk Skogkattring association to establish strict rules for registering and breeding their special cat. They prepared a breed standard - a description of each feature of the ideal cat - based largely on an outstanding Norwegian Forest Cat named Pan's Truls, a big, strong, bushy-tailed male from Oslo.
Unfortunately, for admirers of the Norwegian Forest Cat, a kitten is not easy to acquire. Affectionately called the "Wegie," the breed is rare in the United States. The Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA), the largest Cat Registry in the world, recorded only 847 kittens in registered litters in 2005. Breeders of the Persian, the most popular breed, produced more than 40,700 kittens the same year, out of over 80,700 total registered.
For more information about the Norwegian Forest Cat click here
Click here to compare the standards of the major registries for the Norwegian Forest Cat.
What are the differences between the Norwegian Forest Cat, the Maine Coon and the Siberian? Click here