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BREED STANDARD

General appearance
Sturdy medium-sized cats with strong boning; skin soft, velvety and hot by touch. Expressed sexual dimorphism. Very agile and possess a kind nature.

Head
Wedge-shaped with pronounced cheekbones and eyebrows. Eyeballs marked. Forehead flat with numerous vertical wrinkles becoming horizontal above eyes. Nose medium-sized, straight, with a slight break. Muzzle not long, with a slight pinch, slightly rounded. Bite is determined by the position of canines, no gap. Canines long, may be seen from under upper lip.

Whiskers
Curly, thick, may break off almost to the base so that a cat may have no whiskers at all.

Ears
Big, set up broad and high, slightly bent forward, wide open, with rounded tips. The outer edge of ear is in the cheek-line.

Eyes
Medium-sized, almond-shaped, set up slantwise, moderately open. Color immaterial.

Body
Sturdy, muscular, of medium length, compact, with broad rump, hot to touch. Deep scrotum line. Robust boning, forearms straight, toes long, good-moving. Tail long, straight, strong and flexible

Tail
Long, straight, strong and flexible.

Skin
Elastic, redundant, wrinkled on skull, neck, in armpits and scrotum. With young animals muzzle may be covered with short thin hair longer on cheeks and at the base of ears ("ear muff").

In winter slight furnishing of the whole body possible. With Points residual hair admissible on muzzle, tail, ears and legs. The remaining coat, if present, must completely disappear by the second year of life. Newborns may have Rex-wavy coat and bald spot on head. Curly whiskers are obligatory with the newborn Don Sphynx. Eyes open as early as on the 1st to 3rd day of life.

"Brush" variety retains hair on the whole body, which is wavy, often harsh, except for several bald spots on head, upper side of neck or back.

Admissible as a stud animal and for judging at cat shows, but can't compete for the Championship Certificates.

Colors
Immaterial. The judging procedure is separate for each color; all tabbies are judged as one group with no respect to this or that kind of pattern.

Penalize
Short, round or narrowly shaped head; small or low set ears; round eyes; short, light or frail body; short or abnormally tapering tail; coat covering the whole body; undershot up to 2 mm.

Withhold
Entropion, undershot upwards 2 mm.

The standard was approved January, 1 1997 at the Coordinating conference of feline associations and clubs of CIS.

Don Sphynx at CATS-portal