The Norwegian Forest cat is a very old brreed of domestic cat, it is know to have been around in the viking era and also appears in norse mythology.
It was generally only found in northern europe (the Scandinavian countries) and up until the 1930's was close to extinction fortunately, the Norwegian government stepped in and introduced a breeding programme to increase its numbers. This was currently by the out break of war and the breed was largely forgotten until the 1970's. However, it's popularity is now increased both in Europe and the United States.
The Norwegian Forest cats is a large but elegant breed with a semi long hair coat. The breed is slowly developing and may not be mature until four years of age. The head is triangular with a strong chin. The profile is long and straight with no break in the line. The eyes are large and may be of any colour regardless of the coat colour. The ears are set high on the head and are broad based tapering to the tip. The outside edge of the ear follows the line of the head down to the chin. The ears have tufts and long hair following out of the ears. The body is long, muscular and strong built with solid bone structure. The hind legs are longer than the front legs. There are tufts of hair between the toes. The tail is long and bushy and should reach the shoulder if not the neck when brought along the side of the cat. The coat is semi long. A smooth glossy coat covers the woolly undercoat, which is water repellant. A cat in full coat has a ruff, shirt front and knickerbockers. The coat is significantly shorter in the Summer than the Winter, The cat may be any colour except chocolate, lilac,or siamese pattern and may have any amount of white markings on the paws, chest, belly or face.
Norwegian Forest cats love people and thrive on human company. They do not like to be left alone for any length of time and are very demanding of affection. They are used to an outdoor life and are well adapted to roam outside but they can be very happy as indoor cats provided they have plenty of room to move about. They are very intelligent and can be very rewarding companions as they are extremely friendly and playful............
