Turkish Van

Turkish Van
Immature male red tabby Turkish Van
Other names	Swimming Cat
Common nicknames	Van
Origin	Turkey
Breed standards
CFA	standard
FIFe	standard
TICA	standard
ACF	standard
ACFA/CAA	standard
GCCF	standard
Domestic cat (Felis catus)

The Turkish Van is a recognized breed of cat that was created of the cats native to the alpine Lake Van region in Eastern Anatolia of modern Turkey and are named in Turkish Van Kedisi (although it is used to refer solely to the all-white form) or in Armenian vana katu (Template:Lang-hy), . This geographical region is a part of Armenian Highland or Armenian Plateau, a plateau of Asia Minor, connecting the Lesser Caucasus with the Taurus Mountains. Originally called in the West the Turkish Cat, the name was changed in 1979 in the U.S. ( 1985 in the U.K.) to Turkish Van to better distance the breed from the Turkish Angora cat which had its origins around Ankara, in central Turkey. Traditionally, in the cat fancy, Turkish Vans are recognized as patterned cats with color restricted to the head and tail with the body of the cat being white. However, in Turkey, the cat is recognised in an all white form as well as the form with red patterning and a "fox tail", and with blue eyes, amber eyes, or one eye of each colour (Heterochromia).

Origins

Van Guzelli Iskenderun, the first registered Turkish Van, was imported from Turkey in 1955 by Laura Lushington

In the Complete Cat Encyclopedia, edited by Grace Pond and published in 1972, Laura Lushington wrote that:

"One of the two accepted breeds in Turkey, the Van Cat is now known in Britain as the Turkish Cat. Originating in the Lake Van area of southeastern Turkey, these cats have been domesticated for centuries (in fact for as long as the famous Saluki Hound); they are much loved and prized by the Turks for their exceptional character and unique colouring. Apart from their great capacity for affection and alert intelligence, their outstanding characteristic is their liking for water, not normally regarded as a feline attribute. They not only dabble in water and play with it, but have been known to enter ponds and even horse-troughs for a swim – they soon became famous as the 'swimming cats.' I was first given a pair of Van kittens in 1955 while traveling in Turkey, and decided to bring them back to England, although touring by car and mainly camping at the time – the fact that they survived in good condition showed up the great adaptability and intelligence of their breed in trying circumstances. Experience showed that they bred absolutely true. They were not known in Britain at that time and, because they make such intelligent and charming pets, I decided to try to establish the breed, and to have it recognized officially in Britain by the GCCF."

Characteristics

The coat is the most fascinating trait on this cat. The climate change in Turkey throughout the year seems to have designed the cat's coat over time. Eastern Turkey is mountainous, and Lake Van sits over 5,260 ft (1,600 m).) above sea level. The area faces such extreme temperatures during the summer and winter seasons that it is almost inhospitable. The semi–long haired, water resistant single coat, is thick in winter but very soft, like rabbit fur or cashmere. At maturity, the cat will have a winter mane. During the spring and summer months when Turkey becomes extremely hot, the long hair on the body is shed for a shorter coat that retains the cashmere feel. The hair on the tail remains long throughout the year and has the appearance of a bottle brush.

The Turkish Van is a large, semi-longhaired cat with a swimmer's body. Ideal type should feature broad shoulders with a body that is 'top heavy', that is a cat with its center of gravity forward. The cat is moderately long and its back legs are slightly longer than its front legs but, neither the cat itself nor its legs are so long to be disproportionate. These cats are large and muscular and feature short necks. Male Vans grow to about 16 pounds (7.3 kg).) while Females tend to be a bit lighter in weight, 12 to 14 lb (5.4 to 6.4 kg).) A Van will take up to 3 years to reach full maturity. Vans have been known to reach 3 ft (0.91 m).) long from nose to tip of tail

The shoulders of the Turkish Van are broad with the ability for one to place three fingers between the legs at the chest area. It is said that large Van males are the only domestic cats that cannot follow their heads through a fence due to the broadness of their chest and shoulders. The rear end on the cat should not exceed the width of the shoulders - in other words, no bell bottomed or pear shape should be seen.

Starting from the 16th century, when the first long-haired cats, were brought to Europe as wonders, because there had been only shorthaired cats in Europe at the time, numerous Vans had been imported as Angora cats that were introduced a little earlier. At the same time red-and-white van-patterned Van cats were usually discribed as whites that may be seen at the painting of French artist Antoine Jean Bail (1830-1918) named "A Young Girl With A White Cat" [4]. And even at present Vans are sometimes confused with Turkish Angoras, although a side-by-side comparison reveals vastly different characteristics. Angoras are named after ancient Buzantine town of Angora, (Ankara modern capital of Turkey), and descended separately from the Vans. Angoras carry the W gene associated with white fur, blue eyes and deafness, while van-patterned Vans do not. Van eye color can be amber, blue or odd (one each, amber and blue) but Vans with two blue eyes are not deaf like Angoras. As of late, some Vans have developed green eyes, though the green shade is not rated highly with breed associations.

Turkish Vans are very intelligent, and will easily take over their home and owners. Vans are people cats that want to be with people wherever they go. They like to play and jump and explore anything in their reach, which is quite large. They are energetic; they play hard and sleep hard. Unusual for cat breeds, Turkish Vans love to play in the water and will join you in the tub for a dip or help you in the sink and are known as "the swimming cat." Many Vans are dedicated to fetching their particular object of interest, and many owners describe them as "dogs in a cat suit" because of their unusual personalities.

Vans, because of their fine fur, are hypo-allergenic cats. They are considered excellent pets for those with allergies.

Breed standards

The coloring of the Turkish Van should be limited to the head and tail with random body spots acceptable but all color should not exceed more than 20% of the entire cat with no lower case markings(marking on the legs). The random spots should not detract from the pattern. This would be a small color cap on the head with a white blaze to at least between the front edge of the ears, and a colored tail in any of the traditional colors. The rest of the cat is chalk white. Color can extend up the rump from the tail of the cat and patterned cats often have a random spot or spots of color on the shoulder (more frequently on the left shoulder) or body.

White Turkish Vans should be solid white if that variety is accepted by their registration association.

Van Kedisi

The traditional color of a Turkish Van is Red Tabby and White; as this was the first color exported out of Turkey. Later colors added were Cream, Black, Blue, Cream Tabby, Brown Tabby, Blue Tabby, Tortoiseshell, Dilute Tortoiseshell, Brown Torbie, and Blue Torbie.

Currently, in Turkey, the Van Kedisi (Template:Lang-en) is recognized only as an all white cat, generally with eyes of two different colors (see Odd-eyed cat). These all-white cats may be either short or long haired. The all white Turkish Van is claimed to be genetically identical to the patterned cat with the exception of the white masking gene (W) that "covers" the pattern. Offspring of a white Turkish Van mated to a patterned Van will be a 50/50 mix of white and patterned kittens. However, this can only be the case if the white is masking the van pattern. As white can mask any possible cat color and pattern, solid and bicolor kittens could be produced from a white to van-patterned mating. At present cat associations in England recognize the patterned offspring of such a mating as Turkish Vans and the white offspring as a new breed called Turkish Vankedisi. In the U.S., TICA has fully accepted the white vans as Turkish Vans as has the Government of Turkey. CFA, the world's largest registry of pedigreed cats, does not recognize the all-white Turkish Van as they define the breed by both its type and pattern.

Legend of the coat markings

Many native Van cats have a copper-brown mark on the coat between the shoulderblades. This mark can also be seen in red and white van-patterned Turkish Vans. The Turks call this mark “the thumbprint of Allah’s right hand”, and consider it a sign of good luck. According to this legend, Allah (that means the “Lord” or “God”) blessed the Van cat by putting His right hand on it as the cat left Noah's Ark. In the places on the cat’s coat where the Creator had touched it, the flaming marks appeared. At the same time, this Turkish legend gives no explanations, why the cat had been blessed by the Creator.

The cats excel in their fertility, and it looks like that as in other Indo-European nations, the Armenians’ respect for the cat had some relationship to the worship of the mother deity. It is also known that before 301 AD, when the Armenians adopted Christianity as a state religion, there had been a temple of Astghik, a pagan deity, which in the earliest prehistoric period of heathendom in Armenia had been worshiped as mother-goddess, in the ever-existed village of Artamet [5], located on the shore of Lake Van, that later became a residential suburb of the city of Van, famous for its exclusively tasty apples . And the answer to the question, why, according to the above legend, the All-Mighty Creator had blessed the cat, is in the same source that preserved for us the legend on Noah and the tasting of the first wine produced after the Flood. It turned out that our Lord had created the cat[6] because the cat caught and killed the mice[7] that tried to make a hole in the bottom of the Noah’s Ark . The cat completed the Creator’s will, and thanks to it the cat saved Noah’s family, and, correspondingly, the whole mankind. Such is it, the Cat of Lake Van, or simply “Vana katu" in Armenian. It is worth to mention that there is a Persian proverb, running that "The lion had sneezed, and the cat appeared", which is an echo of the fact that this legend had been well-known in the region.

The spot on the left shoulder, resembles the shape of the print of a thumb due to the presence of the agouti gene, which is responsible for tabby coloration and always present in red color in cats, giving rise to lighter and darker tones in the red marks of Van cats. The mark on the left shoulder can look as if the coloration was pressed out from the center to the periphery under the pressure of a finger.

Varieties

• 
  Red tabby
• 
  Tortie and white
• 
  Cream Turkish Van

Preservation of the native Van cat

Turkish Van, Van region, Turkey, 1973, showing different coloured eyes

Turkish Vans are a naturally occurring breed of cat. They can still be found in east Turkey, near Lake Van, although their numbers have diminished, and a 1992 survey found only 92 pure Turkish Van cats in their native area. All forms of Van cat are now under the protection of the Turkish government. There is a breeding programme for the all-white Van Kedisi cats at the Van Cat House within the grounds of Van University.

External links

• Turkish Van Breed Profile
• Turkish Van Breed Article
• Turkish Van Breed Article
• Turkish Van discussion group
• Turkish Van Photos