Cats and Dogs: Balinese
The Balinese is a breed of domestic cat with long hair and Siamese-style point coloration. It is also known as the purebred Long-haired Siamese, since it is essentially a natural mutation of the Siamese with a medium-length silky coat and a plumed tail. The Balinese cat is also the parent breed for the tabby/lynx marked Balinese cat also termed as Javanese.
Balinese cats are sociable, intelligent, and inquisitive. The Balinese cat is rated the highest in intelligence of all the long-haired breeds, rated 9–10. In comparison: Persians are rated as 6 and Himalayans as 7. They are claimed to have hypoallergenic qualities and tend to live between 13 and 15 years or longer.
The "Balinese" is not actually from Bali or any part of Indonesia. Its history begins with that of the first importations of the Siamese that arrived in the U.K. in the early 1800s and U.S. in the mid-late 1800s. The Balinese breed is a naturally occurring cat breed, but originated from human-controlled breeding efforts from Siamese cats that carried the recessive long haired gene. Occasional long-haired kittens in Siamese litters were seen as an oddity, and were either kept secret or sold as household pets rather than as show cats. This occurred due to breeders believing they had faulty or impure Siamese lines which was not the case.
The Balinese cat was originally registered as a "long-haired Siamese" in 1928 through the cat registry CFF, and Balinese cat examples were known from the early 1920s. The recognition and popularity of the long-haired Siamese breed increased in the mid-1950s, when Marion Dorsey of Rai-Mar Cattery in California and Helen Smith of MerryMews Cattery in New York, decided that they would commence breeding programs for these long-haired Siamese cats that were appearing in pure Siamese-to-Siamese bred litters. Sylvia Holland also initiated a Balinese breeding program and worked to establish the breed standard in the 60's and 70's. She recognized only Seal, chocolate, blue and lilac points as true Balinese, refusing to accept others because they likely originated from crosses with other breeds. Considering "long-haired Siamese" to be a clunky name, Smith named the breed "Balinese", a reference to the grace of Balinese dancers.
Like the Siamese, the Balinese gradually split into two separate varieties. One variety is essentially a long-haired modern Siamese. The Old-style, traditional, or apple-head variety resembles the cats in photos from Helen Smith and Marion Dorsey's early Balinese breeding program and the 1971 CFA Balinese article.
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