| Country of Origin: | United Kingdom |
| Colors: | Brown, Lilac, Chocolate |
| Average Size: | weight: 8-12 lbs (3.6 – 5.44 kg) Length: Small to Medium |
| Life Span: | 8-13 yrs. |
| Coat: | Short |
| Personality: | Graceful, affectionate and highly intelligent cat, with a big personality |
| Characteristics: | Energy: Active Talkative: Little Kid Friendly: Yes Allergic: No |
Poets of ancient Siam (now Thailand) extremely appreciated completely brown cat. They were considered to be very nice and it was believed that they protect their owners from evil. These cats were among the first Siamese cats that came to eh West in the 19th century. Now it seems that among these cats there are actually several different genetic types, including those that we now call Burmese and Tonkin.
In the early 20th century, Fans Club of Siamese cats in the UK made the decision to concentrate only on the growing of blue-eyed Siamese cats, which has been typical for the breed, forgetting completely about brown colored cats that were forgotten until the fifties.
Two growers in the UK began to breed cats with monochromatic brown colors of Siamese chocolate. At that time the only recognized foreign breeds – except Siamese – were Russian Blue and Abyssinian.
The first kitten with a new color was born in 1952 and was the result of crossing a Siamese cat with black marks (the holder of the gene for a chocolate – brown color and short-haired black cat. This became the foundation of a new breed of elegant and graceful cats that were in the beginning of the 1958 year in UK registered as Chestnut Brown Oriental Shorthair cats.
Approximately at the same time, a pair of chestnut brown oriental shorthair cats arrived to the United States to be registered there as Havana cats – not by the name of the capital city of Cuba, but rather by the name of a specific rabbit breed that had eyes of same color.
The breed was in 1959 recognized in the United States and was officially named Havana Brown cat. British “hazel” cats were still imported into the U.S. and registered as Havana Brown in 1973, when the CFA accepted the Oriental shorthair breed, and starting from then imported cats were registered as chestnut Oriental Shorthair cats.
To make it even more confusing, Oriental shorthair cats that are in the United States called “hazel”, today in Britain are called “Havana”!
Therefore, Havana cat developed as an exclusively North American breed and standards for the exhibition are different from those in the UK. In the United States is banned the use of the Siamese cats in the breeding program, and is accepted only the American Shorthair.
In both cases, cats have long legs, a head that is slightly longer than wider and oval green eyes.
