The Oriental Longhair is a breed of cat with a tubular, Siamese-style body (known in the cat fancy as oriental type), but with a longer coat than the short-haired Siamese. The breed was developed by matings between Balinese and Oriental Shorthairs. The coat can also come in a variety of colours and patterns, including tabby, tortoishell

and solid. With the exception of the Foreign White, the Oriental comes with green eyes. The tail is a magnificent plume, which as in the Balinese, needs no more care than the short haired cats.

 

Prior to 2002, the Oriental Longhair was called the Angora by the UK's Governing Council of the Cat Fancy. It was renamed in order to bring the naming in line with other organizations and to avoid confusion with the Turkish Angora. With no globally recognized naming convention, other cat fancies refer to this type as Javanese, Foreign Longhair or Mandarin.

 

Although the Oriental Longhair has been bred for quite some years it remains a rare breed with only 65 registered with the GCCF in 2007.

 

The Oriental Longhair has the same body type and nature as an Oriental cat - lean, sleek, intelligent and inquisitive - and a silky medium-length coat with a plumed tail. You could say they were just a coloured-in Balinese, or a hairy coloured-in Siamese!