Cornish Rex is a different breed from Devon Rex; it results from a different mutation and should not be confused with Devons. Over the years, recognition for the breed spread, and numbers increased as new litter was produced. Early breeding was difficult, and breed development was almost wiped out multiple times due to a minimal gene pool caused by spontaneous mutation. Devons were first accepted for championship status in the Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA) in 1968. They are by the Cornish Rex, discovered in the late 1950s, and similar in appearance.
Cox had prior experience in cat breeding and felt that Kirlee’s curly coat indicated a new cat breed. She was by Miss L. N. Barnes, who founded the Rex Cat Club. Cox lent Kirlee to Barnes, and upon seeing other curly-coated kittens of unaffiliated origin, the two women began a concerted effort to establish a new breed.
Devon Rex cats originated in England in the late 1950s. Beryl Cox discovered the breed in a small abandoned tin mine in Devon. The first Devon Rex was a feral tomcat named Kirlee. Kirlee’s unique appearance piqued Cox’s interest, and she adopted him. His unusual appearance resulted from a natural genetic mutation that resulted in a tight, short, curly coat.
Discovery of the first Devon Rex
The first Devon Rex to be Kirlee, a kitten found in a litter of straight-haired cats born in a deserted tin mine near Buckfastleigh, Devon, UK. He was curly-coated and differed much in conformation from the present-day breed, but his appearance was sufficiently striking to draw notice from local cat fanciers. His subsequent mating with his mother (backcross) produced a litter of 4 kittens, 2 of which were born with the same curly-coated mutation.
Beryl Cox, who lived near Buckfastleigh, adopted one of these. Named CoxKitten, this little animal was the founding father of the breed. At around the same time, Miss Cox imported a Cornish Rex, mistakenly believing the two mutations were similar. Attempts to mate the two were unsuccessful, indicating that the Devon mutation had arisen independently. CoxKitten and an unrecorded number of his progeny subsequently vanished without a trace after contributing (to some unknown extent) to the still tiny Devon gene pool.
Meanwhile, further backcrossing had resulted in a coated breed variant, allowing Devon breeders to set up a “breed club” for the first time, eventually granting an “experimental” breed status in 1979 and achieving Full recognition in 2003 when the Devon Rex was granted championship status by the Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA).
Early breeding efforts
Selkirk had great faith in the future of the curly cat and, with this idea in mind, contacted a Dr. Alison in Devon, England, who was a medical John Wiley before becoming a very prominent British breeder of poultry, ducks, sheep, and dogs, and was the twelfth president of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. He had purchased a cream or silver toy female Devon-type cat that he had named Kirlee and had intended to use to catch mice in the barn at his small farm. Kirlee developed a most unusual coat of guard hairs and very soft down hairs, which had become thick and heavy.
This coat was defined as guard hairs that were brittle or hooked, causing them to break and lie against the body, and the down hairs were beautiful and crinkled. Donna Garrett, the founder of the Cornish Rex breed, had visited Dr. Alison with a Cornish Rex kitten to see his reaction and obtain his opinion on the breed. Dr. Alison showed great interest, and in further conversations with Dr. Garrett, that would acquire the next Cornish Rex breed by mating a Cornish to a domestic Devon, Siamese, or Birman. It was at this time that Dr. Alison learned of the Selkirk Rex and felt that this breed would complement the Cornish Rex and that a mating of the two breeds could eventually lead to establishing a third breed: the Devon Rex and the kitty cat that Marjorie’s dad had always wanted and agreed that Dr. Alison would try to obtain a Selkirk Rex and breed it into a Devon.
Recognition as a distinct breed
Who should have the credit for unfolding this unconventional information on the (still at the time, somewhat unnamed) breed now officially recognized as the Devon Rex?
In 1959, Miss Cox bred a curly-coated kitten from a feral tomcat. I found This cat in an abandoned tin mine in Buckfastleigh, Devon. He was of a breed unknown to Miss Cox, and so to establish what he was, she contacted The World Cat Federation, who confirmed he was a Devon Rex. They also suggested she mate him to Del-Kur Mark, a curly-coated cat imported to the UK from America in 1956. This Miss Cox did, and the offspring of this mating was a kitten that later became the 1st Devon Rex to gain a title in the show.
Sadly, as he was named, he was also the last offspring of this mating due to the early death of Del-Kur Mark, but Aspen set the pace for the entirety of the breed and its recognition today. Thus, Miss Cox formed a club for owners and breeders of these cats called the Buckfastleigh Rex Cat Club. In 1967, the breed was by the World Cat Federation, and today, there are breeders and registered cats in New Zealand, Australia, America, Canada, South Africa, and Europe, so the English breed is continuously growing worldwide.
