The American Bobtail

American Bobtails are loving and incredibly intelligent cats possessing a distinctive wild appearance. They are interactive cats that bond with their human family with great devotion. They can both entertain through their antics and also provide a warm and soft shoulder to their owners to cry on in times of distress.

- Rohini Sankar

American Bobtails are known for their love for games and can play fetch and hide and seek for hours on end. They will often initiate games with their owners, and they demonstrate their hunting instincts in the home by catching insects in mid-air flying that make fatal mistake of entering their territory. They also love to stalk their toys and carry them in their mouths, as if they were a freshly caught rodent.

Basically a quiet cat but the American Bobtail is known to trill, chirp and click when delighted. They are easily leash trained and love to go for walks with their people. An easy going breed, they get along well with most dogs and welcome newcomers, whether they are two-legged or four-legged.

The American Bobtail was developed by natural selection to survive feral environments. They are medium to large cats with substantial rectangular bodies. The tail is short, expressive, flexible (sometimes straight), slightly curved, slightly kinked or may have bumps along its length. The natural bobtail is clearly visible above the back when the cat is alert and it should not extend beyond the hind hock. The combination of this distinctive tail with other physical characteristics results in a cat with a marked resemblance to the bobtailed wildcat. The head is a broad modified wedge with an observable whisker break above a well defined, broad, medium-length muzzle. Whisker pads are fleshy and the chin is strong. The eye shape combined with the brows gives the breed its natural hunting gaze and expression of intelligence and alertness. The American Bobtail is a moderately long and substantial cat with a rectangular stance; the chest is full and broad with slightly higher hips and prominent shoulder blades. With legs of substantial boning, they possess a muscular and athletic appearance and are a deceptively heavy cat.