Most of the cat breeds I find most interesting have ancient origins — cats from 14th-century Thailand, preservation programs in Ottoman-era Turkey, working animals that crossed the Atlantic with colonists. The Exotic Shorthair is notable for being none of these things. It was invented in 1950s suburban America, through deliberate crossbreeding, by someone who was trying to improve a different breed and accidentally created a new one.
That backstory is worth knowing because it explains both the breed's genetic proximity to the Persian and the debates it generated in the cat fancy when it was first proposed as a recognized breed. The full picture of what the Exotic Shorthair is today is in the complete Exotic Shorthair breed guide. This is the origin story.
The Cross That Started It
The account most commonly cited in Exotic Shorthair breed histories involves Carolyn Bussey, an American Shorthair breeder in the late 1950s who crossed her American Shorthairs with a silver Persian. Her stated goal was to improve the American Shorthair's coat texture and introduce the Persian's distinctive eye color — not to create a new breed.
The resulting kittens were striking. The Persian's round head, flat face, and large eyes appeared in combination with the American Shorthair's shorter, easier coat. The cats didn't look quite like either parent. They looked like something new.
Other American Shorthair breeders noticed the results and began pursuing similar crosses, some with Persian, some with Burmese, and some with Russian Blue — the Russian Blue contributing to the distinctive green eye color found in some silver Exotic Shorthairs. The crosses spread through the American cat fancy informally through the early 1960s as breeders experimented with refining the type.
The Cat Fanciers' Association Recognition
By the mid-1960s, enough breeders were working with the Persian-Shorthair cross to seek formal recognition. Jane Martinke is credited as a central figure in advocating for recognition and in drafting the breed standard that described the goal: Persian type — round head, flat face, cobby body — in a coat that was short rather than long.
The Cat Fanciers' Association accepted the Exotic Shorthair for registration in 1966 and for championship competition in 1967 — CFA's own breed records confirm the one-year gap between the two. The breed standard was written to match the Persian standard in physical type, distinguishing only the coat length.
The Persian Breeders' Objection
The Exotic Shorthair's CFA recognition generated controversy from Persian breeders, whose concern was specific: Exotic Shorthair breeders were using Persians in their crosses, and those crosses risked introducing shorthair genes into Persian bloodlines. A Persian outcrossed with an Exotic Shorthair would produce kittens that looked like Persians but carried the shorthair gene — potentially producing shorthair offspring in subsequent Persian-to-Persian pairings.
The solution adopted by the CFA was to permit Exotic-to-Persian crosses for the Exotic Shorthair while creating a registry system that allowed tracking of which Persian lines carried shorthair genes. This didn't fully satisfy Persian breeders but provided a workable structure.
Today, Persian-to-Exotic crosses remain permitted in most associations, and the two breeds are considered genetically very close. The occasional longhaired kitten produced by Exotic Shorthair parents — carrying two copies of the recessive longhair gene — is registered as Exotic Longhair in most associations or as Persian in others, depending on the registry.
The Coat Goal: The Intended Result
What the early breeders were trying to achieve was simple to state and difficult to produce consistently: the Persian's physical type in a coat that required daily grooming to be replaced by twice-weekly care. The Persian's long, flowing double coat — visually spectacular but labor-intensive — was the barrier for many potential Persian owners. A structurally similar cat with a shorter coat was a practical solution to a real problem.
The early generations of Exotic Shorthairs had coats that weren't quite right — too long in some individuals, too harsh in others. Refining the coat to the plush, brush-like texture that now defines the breed took several generations of selective breeding and strategic crosses.
The Burmese contributions in early development are credited with adding to the coat's plush density. Russian Blue crosses contributed to eye color diversity in silver individuals. By the 1970s, the Exotic Shorthair's coat type was stable enough that the breed had established its own identity rather than reading as a failed attempt at a Persian.
The Breed's Position Today
The Exotic Shorthair has become one of the most popular pedigreed cats in the world, partly because its practical advantages are genuine and partly because the appearance — round face, large eyes, plush coat — is widely appealing.
For the discussion of how Exotic Shorthair and Persian compare today, the two breeds' relationship is as close genetically as any two recognized breeds can be. The Exotic Shorthair didn't emerge from centuries of natural selection. It was engineered, in about a decade, to solve a practical problem. That it succeeded as well as it did is a credit to the breeders who pushed for its recognition.