Bald as a coot, cat hoping to steal the show

Nearly 20 years after it came to Britain, the sphynx has finally been recognised as a breed by the Governing Council Of The Cat Fancy.



It can therefore compete for the first time alongside 750 other cats at the National Cat Club's annual championships at Olympia on Saturday.

The sphynx was first brought to Britain from Canada by Jan Plumb, 62, from Enfield, in 1988. She said: "It's a natural mutation. The first one was born in the mid- Sixties in Ontario."

A breeder of Siamese cats mated the hairless male with its mother which produced half a litter of hairless cats and so the sphynx was developed.