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The US animal shelter is where the Selkirk Rex got its start in 1987 when a litter of kittens was brought in. The keepers were shocked to see how one of the kittens differed so much from its five siblings: it had curly fur with wavy whiskers and vivid green eyes. This fur mutation happened on its own. The Persian breeder Jeri Newman was informed about the odd kitten by the staff of the animal shelter.
After taking it in, Newman gave it the moniker Miss Depesto of Noface. Upon reaching adulthood, Miss Depesto was crossed with a black Persian male by Newman, who was subsequently rewarded with six little kittens, three of which had smooth fur and the other three wavy. The new breed was dubbed the Selkirk Rex by Newman. The Selkirk Rex steadily but deliberately evolved over the ensuing decades. Even now, some associations still allow restricted out-crossings with other breeds, such as the Persian or British Shorthair. Because curls are an autosomal dominant feature, cats that are heterozygous for the trait will still have curls. But, crossing two heterozygous Selkirk Rexes can produce kittens devoid of the gene for curly hair. All kittens grow up with curls only when one parent is a homozygous carrier of the curly-haired gene.
