History.2

Celebrated in the “Aftenposten” (The evening newspaper) the news that the NFO is an international breed.

Known in Paris

It happened in Paris some days ago. The NFO was approved as an international breed, and has now got a position as the Siamese and other aristocrats. In this article we present the NFO – that now has become much more then an ordinary pussycat…

Now has "the Tom" become a real aristocrat.

By Jorun Rydén Jensen
Cut from: Aftenposten

The NFO is an ordinary and real breed that exists only in Norway, and is unknown to the rest of the world, except for a small colony in Scotland and at the East Coast in North America that are bred from the cats “remaining after the Norwegian ship cats”. The story of the cat in Norway stems from a long time ago. We see it mentioned in Norse mythology. How it all started, we can just guess. But over time some of these cats developed into robust and large boned individuals with the characteristic cat fur from the woods. This fur is very special, with the light woolen undercoat covered of longer oily guard hairs hanging over the undercoat from the back and down the sides. The tough Norwegian climate is mostly responsible for this development. During the times when the cat mostly lived outside the whole year, wild kittens with completely short fur would often not survive the first winter due to the cold climate.

Another distinctive characteristic with the NFO is the unusual strong claws. This trait may be the reason that the NFO has lived in areas with a lot of mountains. If we study a forest cat in the natural environment, we recognize that it is able to climb mountain sides where other cats would have big problems in achieving. Norway’s leading authority in cat matters, NRR, decided in June this year the standard for the NFO . Beside the special oily fur and the high legs, long body, this cat must have a triangular head with long, straight nose and a good cheek. The eyes shall be big and open, the ears shall be high with lynx tips and the long and fluffy tail. The cats we find outside can very well be a good forest cat type, but it must first be approved by NRR’s breeding council to be called a NFO. It is a difficult work to cultivate a cat breed, especially when it was going to disappear like the forest cat.

Else and Egil Nylund with
Pans Silver and Truls
Foto: Tom B. Jensen

Today, there are 192 accepted/approved forest cats in Norway, and lots of people have been interested in this magnificent and harmonic race.

The work to solve this NFO started little by little already in 1930’s. Some specimen’s of the NFO were shown at an exhibition in Oslo before Christmas in 1938. However, the war stopped this work, and it did not start properly again until 1973. The man that mainly has the honor for the NFO and what it is today, is Carl-Fredrik Nordane, present president in NRR, well supported by his wife, Helen Nordane, secretary in Norway’s biggest breed cat club and member of breeding council. It was after the Nordanes initiative that the work with the NFO started again in 1973.