Chantilly-Tiffany

The Chantilly-Tiffany breed had its official beginning as a 'Foreign Longhair' when New York breeder Jennie Robinson acquired two kittens, Thomas and Shirley, at a garage sale in 1967. These kittens, with yellow eyes and chocolate coats, were not litter-mates but may have had the same parents. Shirley later gave birth to a litter of six kittens in May 1969, all of which shared the same chocolate coat color and appearance. Robinson then began a breeding program to emphasize these traits. In the early 1970s, the ACA registered Thomas and Shirley, along with many of their descendants, as 'Foreign Longhairs'. The breeding program was later taken over by Sigyn Lund, a Florida Burmese breeder, who purchased some of Robinson's kittens. Due to judges' concerns about the general nature of the breed's name, a change was requested. While the name 'Mahogany' was proposed, Lund ultimately renamed the breed from 'Foreign Longhair' to 'Tiffany', reflecting elegance and class. However, the ACA did not recognize the name 'Tiffany' due to its rarity, leading to all breed representatives registered under Lund losing their pedigree status. In the 1980s, the breed faced a decline, but it was revived by breeder Tracy Oraas from Alberta, Canada, in 1988. Oraas used a chocolate-colored alley cat with yellow eyes that had come to her home in 1973, as well as breeds such as Havana Brown, Nebelung, Somali, and Oriental Longhair, to revitalize the breeding program. The breed was then renamed 'Chantilly' in 1992. Chantilly cats were bred until the early 2000s when they began to fade from the breeding scene. By 2003, the Amorino Cattery, operated by breeder Davenport-Parini, was the last remaining Chantilly cattery in the US. However, a fire in 2012 destroyed Amorino Cattery and its archives, putting the breed at risk of extinction.