Whether you call this breed of cat a Balinese or Javanese depends on where you live. For the most of the world, this longer haired Siamese is a Balinese; it is typically only inside the 48 contiguous, and Alaska, that it becomes known as the Javanese. Part of the reason for the European preference for Balinese is the British refer to someone from Angora as Javanese. Confused?
Yes, she is. One thing that is almost certain, though not exactly one-hundred percent, is that the Balinese cat does derive from the same ancestral lineage as the more well known Siamese. (If you please.) The genetic divergence between the Siamese breed of cat and the Balinese (Javanese if you’re from Peoria) is thought to be due to a recessive gene for that long, shimmering hair that began to appear with increasing frequency among purebred Siamese litters sometime during the 1940’s.
About a decade later a breeder in California saw the opportunity to develop a brand spanking new pedigree by manipulating cats with this recessive gene and thus was created a cat that gets confused with those quirky, some might even say unpleasant, Siamese cats. If you’ve never had a neighbor with Siamese cats then you probably take those two meanies in Lady and the Tramp as pure fiction.
They aren’t; Siamese cats can be a prickly breed that you do not want to mess around with. The Balinese (or Javanese) breed, by contrast, are normally a bit more affectionate and playful than Siamese, though they too can on occasion get rather aloof and idiosyncratic. On the other hand, the Balinese breed of cats are highly intelligent and, like their Siamese cousins, loyal almost to a fault. There is another advantage to investing in the Balinese breed; they are easy to groom even for a cat. All they require is regular brushing to keep them one of the most beautiful and eye-catching animals in the neighborhood.
