The Korat has the typical appearance of a silver blue cat with a thick silver shine, being medium in size, hard bodied, and muscular. This cat has sleek curves and large, brilliant, alert, and expressive eyes. The breed is in excellent physical condition and appears alert.
Personality
Korats are not as talkative as their Siamese counterparts, but they have other ways of communicating their desires. They’ll wrap themselves around your ankle, clamber up onto your shoulder, and perhaps give you a little love-bite on the shin if you don’t hurry up with the cat food—but if they have something essential to say, they’ll say it.
They are an 8 on the cat-activity scale: gregarious, playful, and full of life, but not bouncing off the walls hyper. They are also extremely intelligent. Korats, like Siamese, are fetchers of hurled toys, chasers of sunbeams and paper scraps, cats whose favorite pastime is one in which their valued human companions participate. Korats love human contact and will use their intelligence to take control of your lap, arms, and heart.
History
The Cat-Book Poems, a collection of verses and paintings created in the city of Ayutthaya, Siam, somewhere between 1350 c.e. when the kingdom was founded and 1767 c.e., contains the earliest drawings and descriptions of the Korat (pronounced ko-RAHT). A brilliant green cast is desirable, but an amber cast is okay. Because manuscripts were penned on palm-leaf or bark parchment at the time, it is impossible to know when the book was written. When a manuscript got too old, it was painstakingly hand-copied onto new materials.
This makes dating the original documents challenging. Nonetheless, it is most likely the oldest document on cats in existence. In verse, the book depicts and explains seventeen different types of lucky cats, including Siamese, Burmese, Havana Brown, and Korat. The Korat is described as a good luck cat by the document’s artists and writers, whose names have long been forgotten, with eyes the color of young rice that glisten like dewdrops on a lotus leaf and a body the color of rain clouds and silver. Unlike Siamese cats, which were predominantly held by Thailand’s aristocracy, Korats were (at least originally) regular people’s cats, and were greatly valued as living good luck charms. Korats, also known as Si-Sawat (si meaning color and sawat meaning the silver-blue seed of the same name fruit plant), were never sold and were instead given as particular displays of respect, honor, and admiration.
According to legend, new brides were given a pair of Si-Sawat cats to ensure happy, prosperous marriages. Other stories connect the Korat to rites that provide essential rainfall to new rice harvests. According to one narrative, Korats were paraded around northeast Thai villages while being doused with water to ensure rain would fill the rice crops with much-needed water. It is unknown whether these stories are factual or not, but they add to the mystique of Siam’s good luck cat. It makes little difference whether The Cat-Book Poems was written in the mid-fourteenth century or the mid-eighteenth century.
In any case, the Korat is one of the oldest domestic cat breeds, along with the Siamese, Burmese, and Havana Brownish, which are also described in the manuscript.
The American Cat Association (ACA) was the first North American organization to acknowledge the Korat in 1966, followed by the CFA later that year. Today, the Korat is recognized by all North American registries and is supported by a dedicated, passionate group of people who cherish the breed’s history, beauty, and grace.
Physical Attributes
BODY
Semi-cobby, not very compact or slimline. The torso is distinguishable. Broad chested with plenty of room between the forelegs. Muscular and supple, giving a sense of hard coiled spring force and surprising weight. The back is carried in a curved fashion.
HEAD
When viewed from the front or immediately behind the head, the head is heart-shaped, with width between and across the eyes. The upper curves of the heart are formed by the ridges of the brows, while the sides of the face softly bend straight down to the chin to complete the heart shape. Profile is well-defined, with a modest pause between the brow and nose and a lion-like downward curve slightly before the leather. Chin and jaw are firm and well-developed, creating a balancing line for the profile and completing the heart-shape adequately. Neither too squared nor sharply pointed, with a weak chin giving the head a pointed appearance.
EARS
Large, with a rounded tip and a large flare at the base, positioned high on the head with an alert face. Inside the ears are lightly supplied. Hairs on the outside of the ears are exceedingly short and close together.
EYES
Large and bright. Particularly notable for its tremendous depth and brilliance. The eyes are wide open and large for the face. While closed or partially closed, the eye opening, which appears well-rounded when fully open, has an Asian slant. after the town was destroyed by Burmese invaders Kittens and teenagers can have yellow or amber to amber-green eyes; however, the color is usually not obtained until the cat is grown, usually between the ages of two and four years.
LEGS & PAWS
Legs are proportionate to the body. The distance along the back from the nape of the neck to the base of the tail appears to be identical to the distance from the base of the tail to the floor. The front legs are slightly shorter than the back legs. Oval paws Five in front and four in behind.
TAIL
Medium in length, with a heavy base and a rounded tip. Visible kink is tolerated.
COAT
Single. Hair is short, lustrous, and fine, and falls close to the body.
COLOR
The silver should be enough to generate a silver halo effect if the blue is silver-tipped all over. The hair is normally lighter in the roots, with a blue gradient that is deepest immediately before the silver tips. Adults should not have any shading or tabby markings. In kittens, allow for ghost tabby markings. The luster of the silver is enhanced where the coat is short.
Disclaimer
While the qualities listed below are common for this breed, cats are individuals with unique personalities and appearances. For more information about a specific pet, please contact the adoption group.
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