Collection: Personalised American Bobtail Gifts

A relatively new breed, the American Bobtail is a friendly family cat with a lot of personality. Their short tail comes from a mutated gene, not any form of mutilation, but if the tail is too short or non existent, it can cause some health problems.

American Bobtails originally started out as domesticated tabby cats, although there are also feral cats with bobbed tails. Unlike other bobtail breeds the American Bobtails genetics are the dominant trait. The first systematic development of the American Bobtail breed began in the 1960s when a couple called John and Brenda Sanders adopted a short-tailed tabby cat. They named the cat Yodi. The couple already had a cat called Mishi who bred with Yodi and their litter had short tails like Yodi. The Sanders realised the tails could be a dominant trait and so a family friend, Mindy Shoultz, who partnered with Charlotte Bently, to work on the breed and make it an official purebred. The breed was recognised by the International Breed association in 1989 before it received gull recognition in 2002.

Unusually affectionate for a cat with a good level of intelligence, this breed involves spending with their human friends. If you have an American Bobtail, make sure to provide them with plenty of puzzle toys and challenges to keep them entertained and to reduce unwanted boredom based behaviours. While American Bobtails can get on with children, younger children will need to be taught how to interact with cats to avoid scratches!