The Australian Mist (formerly known as the Spotted Mist) is a breed of cat. This breed was developed in Australia in the late 1970s, hence its name. The breed was developed by crossing the Burmese, Abyssinian, and Domestic shorthair cats to create a shorthaired cat with a spotted coat. The name was changed from ‘Spotted Mist’ to ‘Australian Mist’ in 1998 when cats with marbled coats, rather than spots, were accepted as part of the breed.
Australian Mists are medium-sized short haired cats, with a round head and large, expressive eyes.
The coat patterns have three levels of definition; (1) ground colour, paler than pattern; (2) pattern, delicate though distinct from ground colour; (3) appears to wear a misted veil, caused by random ticking in the solid colour areas.
The legs and tail are ringed or barred, and the face and neck also have delicate lines of color. Australian Mist cats come in seven colors: brown, blue, chocolate, lilac, caramel, gold and peach.
As a relatively new breed, all Australian Mist catteries are in Australia, however desexed cats have been introduced to America and several other countries. The breed is now accepted for Championship status by the World Cat Federation. The Australian Mist will celebrate 30 years as an accepted Championship breed in Australia during 2016.
Australian Mist Breed Information
Australian Mist are a relatively new cat breed, originating in Sydney, Australia, in the mid 1980’s. They are excellent house cats and are highly affectionate. The foundation cats used to create the breed were one half Burmese, and quarter each Abyssinian and Domestic.
They have inherited the affectionate, people-loving temperament, general size and shape of the Burmese, the intelligence and agility of the Abyssinian, and the health and vitality of the Domestic. Australian Mist are short-haired cats of moderate size and build. They have a round head and large, expressive eyes in a range of greens.
Features
The nose, chin and whisker pads are broad, giving the face a generous expression. There are two possible coat patterns in the Australian Mist: Spotted and Marbled. These delicate spots or intricate marbled swirls are set against a creamy ‘misted’ ground, with legs ringed and barred and the face and neck delicately lined.
The spotted mist tail is also ringed while the marbled mist tail has beautiful irregular scalloping. The cat’s coat is short and resilient and the tail is well furred. Australian Mist cats presently come in six colors: warm brown, blue, chocolate, lilac, gold and peach. Australian Mists are outstandingly affectionate and gentle. They are very tolerant of handling and disinclined to scratch, which makes them ideal with even small children. Australian Mist are highly intelligent and are very obliging when called upon to participate in games.
Australian Mist Temperament
As kittens they are lively, but sober up somewhat on maturity. Their propensity to crawl into the nearest lap with or without invitation, and to constantly hang around to see what people are up to makes them an excellent companion for the home worker, and the invalid.
De-sexed cats and kittens fit in easily with all sorts of other cats, being neither aggressive toward them, nor allowing themselves to be upset by the unfriendliness of others. They are perfectly happy to live wholly indoors as long as they have a few toys to play with and plenty of human company or the company of another cat.