Meet the Snowshoe

We Snowshoes are a very new breed. In the early 1960s, three “happy accident” Siamese kittens were born at a cattery in Philadelphia, PA, and these three kittens inspired my whole breed! A Siamese cat breeder named Dorothy Hinds-Daugherty discovered that three kittens in one of her litters all had four white paws each. She fell in love with these kittens – who not only had furbulous white paw markings but also the Siamese’s trademark stunning blue eyes and point coloration – and wanted to create a breed with these very specific markings. She decided to breed these special Siamese with American Shorthair cats with tuxedo markings, and over time, she achieved the right markings and colorations.

Eventually, she retired, but another breeder named Vikki Olander wanted to keep our breed going. The records from this period of my development are pretty spotty, but Olander was the only human breeding us by 1977. (We Snowshoes have always been a rare breed because it’s very difficult to achieve our specific colors and markings.) There’s evidence that Snowshoe-type cats (or more accurately, Siamese cats with white mittens) have existed naturally for a long time – there’s a Victorian-era photo and a Japanese silk-screen that depict some of my naturally occurring ancestors – but they were happy accidents of nature, not the result of a strict breeding program.

Because there were so few of us, it took a while for the major cat registries to officially recognize our breed. The Cat Fanciers Federation recognized us in 1982, followed by the American Cat Fanciers Association in 1990 and The International Cat Association in 1994. Today, we’re still a rare breed, but the humans who know and love us keep our breed going strong!