Thai
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 Description
This ancient breed arose in Southeast Asia, in the nation now known as Thailand. The British brought many of these cats back to England in the late 19th and early 20th century. They called the breed the "Siamese" because they found the cats in the kingdom of Siam. The British breeders wrote a standard for the Siamese and bred them accordingly. But the Thai people continued to call the cats by their original native name, "Wichienmaat", and continued to breed them as they always had.
The Siamese proved extremely popular and spread across Europe and North America. The breed evolved to a much typier, more extreme looking cat than the cats found in Thailand. Some people liked the changes, but not everyone thought this was good for the breed. At the end of the 1950s, the breed split into two types. Mainstream breeders bred the more refined and extreme breed the Siamese had become. But a few rebels preserved the old look of the breed. By the late 1960s, the old-style Siamese were no longer competitive in the show halls. By 1980, they had vanished from the mainstream cat fancy.
In the 1980s that fanciers in Europe and North America decided it was time to get the old Siamese recognized as a breed independent of the contemporary Siamese. The problem was getting isolated breeders from across the globe to work together and to rejoin the mainstream cat fancy. Many attempts failed. In 1990, the World Cat Federation (WCF) recognized the breed as separate and distinct. They called it the Thai to distinguish it from the breed that the Siamese had become.
In 2001, breeders began to import original-style Wichienmaats from Thailand to expand the gene pool of the Thai. At about this same time, breeders in Europe and North America began to work closely together in one international breed club. In 2006, "Thai" became the official name of the breed internationally, in TICA. Today, Thais (old-style Siamese) and Siamese can be shown in separate classes in TICA.
The Thai is the native pointed cat of Thailand. The TICA standard was based on the appearance of Wichienmaats imported from Thailand. In Europe and North America it is sometimes, officially, called the Old-Style Siamese. Unofficially or colloquially, people may refer to it as the traditional Siamese, applehead Siamese, or by other names. However, those terms do not have official or agreed-upon definitions in the formal cat fancy.
The Thai in TICA has higher set ears and a more lithe body than the Tonkinese, but at the same time is a more substantial, less refined, and less extreme cat than the Siamese. When you see the three breeds side by side, you can easily tell them apart.
The most common point color is seal, which is a dark brown, but many other point colors are possible. This is the breed celebrated for generations worldwide for its exuberant, people-loving personality. Thais are keenly intelligent, energetic, athletic, form tight bonds with their people, and love to have fun. They must have companionship and stimulation daily to thrive.
Acceptance: The Thai is recognized for championship status in TICA.
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