About Turkish Vans
A Turkish Van is a large, wonderful, active, intelligent, beautiful, strong, very powerful, healthy breed of cats, with no known genetic defects. It is a natural breed, not a man-made breed, originating in the Lake Van region of Turkey. Amazingly, the cat is believed to have existed and survived in the Eastern Anatolian region for thousands of years and known to have been domesticated for centuries. For many years, the rugged terrain of their home territory encapsulated these lovely creatures enabling us to appreciate them much as they have been throughout history.
In 1955, while photographing Van Lake, British citizens Laura Lushington and Sonia Halliday became fascinated by the beautiful Van cats of the area. Lushington was given a pair of Van cats because of the work she had done for the Turkish Tourist Board. She returned to England, began a breeding program, and worked towards establishing the Turkish Van cat as a pure breed. The Turkish Van first became a fully recognized pure breed in England in 1969 and the first Van kittens arrived in the United States in the 1970s.
Turkish Vans are a long-haired, substantially large and well-muscled cat. Vans do not mature completely until 3-5 years of age. They are very active and athletic, and because they are always running, jumping, and climbing they develop impressive, heavy hind quarters. Full grown males can reach 20+ pounds and females 15+ pounds.
One of the most notable features of the cat is their cashmere like coat. The coat is semi-long, lies flat to the body and there is no undercoat. Because of this, the coat of a Turkish Van cat is easy to groom, does not easily attract dirt, and is quite water repellant. In fact, Turkish Vans have been known to go for a swim in the local lakes and rivers of their homeland which earned them a reputation as "Swimming" cats. Of course, the common thought is that the cats would swim in their native land during the extremely hot summers in order to cool off, and therefore you should not expect that every Van is born with a desire to swim.
Turkish Vans are extremely intelligent and expressive cats. Like all cats, Vans learn by trial and error. Unlike other cats, however, Vans are not content to "just get by" and will continually look for new challenges to solve. You will find that the Turkish Van can sometimes be nearly fearless and very persistent. For a long time I had two Vans that continued to attempt to jump up onto the stove hood in the kitchen which sloped downward at such an angle that they would slide right off to the floor. They would then sit and study their problem. I swear that I could see them thinking as they looked at the hood and tilted their heads back a forth. They continued to fall off the hood and onto the floor until one day, when they were both surveying this problem again, one of them decided to try a different tactic. He climbed up on top of the kitchen cupboards into a very tight fitting area and moved directly above the hood. Then he proceeded to very slowly let himself down feet first onto the hood until he sat! Of course, the other one then had to mimic his feat and since that day, when they finally conquered the "mountain", neither one of them has had any interest in sitting on top of the stove hood anymore!
As mentioned earlier, Van cats are well-muscled cats because of their athleticism. The energy and activity level of a Van is extremely high in relation to its long-haired counterparts that you may be familiar with such as the Maine Coon or Ragdoll. This trait can lead to lots of fun and many Van cats will play fetch with their owners for recreation. Of course, this also means that it is important to secure any valuables, breakables, and sharp objects in a household out of a Vans reach.
While Vans may not enjoy sitting still for very long, they are extremely affectionate, loving and loyal companions. They like to follow their owners around, like dogs, and participate in all of the daily activities. They enjoy being petted and many are known to display their affections by purring very loudly and even head butting with their owners.
The Turkish Van cats that were first exported to England were a glistening chalk white in color with red markings on the head and tail only. In fact, the word "van" is now used by the cat fancy to describe the distinctive color pattern of a white cat with a colored head and tail markings. As the breed gained popularity, the acceptable colors for the patterned markings of the Turkish Van cat expanded to also include black, tortie, cream, and blue. Most recently, select cat fancier clubs in Europe and the U.S. have also elected to include the all white Van. Just like the patterned Van, the all white Van actually does have color associated with it but a masking gene is present which "hides" the color producing an all white coat. A Vans eye color can be blue, amber, or odd (one blue eye and one amber eye).
Unfortunately, the future of the Turkish Van cat is in jeopardy. Because of the dwindling population of Turkish Vans in Turkey today, the breed is now protected and cannot be readily exported. The Turkish Government is making efforts to stabilize and revitalize the native population; however, not much progress towards this goal has been reported.
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