Devon Rex breed guide

Intensely loyal, Devon Rexes attach deeply to their owners and dislike long stretches alone. Every guest is a potential new friend, dogs and other animals count as companions, playmates or pillows and it takes children's dress-up and tea-party games in stride.

Part court jester and part soulmate, the Devon Rex learns its name, follows its people through the house and snuggles beside them in bed. It tries to help with everything: joining you in the shower or even falling into the bathtub with you.

Appetites are robust and tastes exotic, with fruit and vegetables as appealing as chicken or fish. Talk is soft chirps, trills and peeps along with contented purrs.

Devon Rexes have sparse, short guard hairs, so the open-wave coat varies in density and texture and is fragile enough to leave occasional bare patches. They shed less than most cats. CFA calls them easy-care, wash-and-wear cats.

A varied genetic background leads CFA to expect few health concerns, but genetic testing is essential for breeders because blood type B is common in the gene pool. If an A male is bred to a B female, blood type incompatibility can kill the kittens unless they are hand-raised at first.

In 1959 a single curly-haired male kitten turned up in a litter born in a garden in Devon, England. Beryl Cox took him in and named him Kirlee.

He was first taken for another example of the Cornish Rex mutation, but test breedings proved that wrong and breeding him to his own offspring produced kittens with a looser wave than the Cornish Rex curl. CFA says outcrossing over the years gave Devon Rexes one of the broadest ranges of colors and patterns of any breed.