The Norwegian Forest Cat

The Norwegian Forest Cat: a Feast for the Eyes
By: Iro Ignatiadi

Take a gorgeous cat that has a long, flowing coat of silky fur that you just love to touch but requires little to no grooming, and you have a Norwegian Forest Cat. These beautiful cats have bright emerald green eyes with a band of gold and possess a face with one of the sweetest expressions you will see on a cat. It all combines into such a lovely package that you just can't stop looking at them.

Used by the Vikings to protect their grain stores on both the sea and on land, these cats have explored the world over and it is believed that many of the progeny were left behind on the shores of North America. Another interesting feature of the Norwegian Forest Cat is that their look varies greatly between winter and summer. During the spring, they shed their luxurious undercoat with its downy warmth. But they keep the long outer guard hairs that don't tangle like the fur of most longhaired cats, and acts as a deflector against snow and rain, so that the difference in their coat from season to season can be quite extreme. They also have inner-ear hair ranging from three to four inches in length and curves out and around their ears. Not to be forgotten is their magnificent tail which, when fanned out to its fullest, can be as much as twelve inches or more.

Their color ranges from purest white to the darkest black with nearly every combination of coat pattern and color combination. The light colored cats had much thicker coats with lots of undercoat to keep them warm in the winter, while the darker colored coat, which absorbs the heat better, tends to be slightly thinner but just as glamorous.

The Norwegian Forest Cat's Norse name is skogkatt, which means forest cat. They are believed to have come out of the Scandinavian forests some four thousand years ago. These cats are considered to be one of the best people-oriented cats, but as in any animal, their personality will differ depending upon the kind of home in which they live and the type of handling they received from their owners. If handled and petted from the time they are kittens, they will respond accordingly. If you wish your Norwegian Forest Cat to get along with children, dogs, or other cats, it is best to expose them at an early age so that they are used to it.

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