The Abyssinian is easily recognized on its pattern, called ticked tabby, which means that every single hair is sectioned by “bands” in two different colours. On the ruddy Abyssinian (and Somali, which is the semilonghair version of the Aby) every hair is warm reddish brown and has 2-3 black bands and black tip. The Abyssinians colour is different from any other cats, and probably reminds most of the colour on a hare (the pattern).

Abyssinians are very curious – more than usual, referring to cats in general – and also very intelligent. That combination sometimes lead to problems as they often learn (by themselves) to open doors, cupboards, the fridge and even windows, and all of a sudden the cat is in a situation you could never have imagined!

Abyssinians are social cats who are not all thriving well by being a single cat since it also very active and playful. However it is not a “pile cat” (like the Burmese) which necessarily need to share the couch with a bunch of other cats… The Abyssinians is an “intense” cat that never does anything half ways – when it plays it runs about like crazy, and when it is in the mood for cuddling (which is often) that also is an intense experience as the cat purrs loudly, kneads and shares “head butts” – and of course expects to be stroked and cuddled for as long as the cat likes, no matter what you were doing before it came strolling along!

Even though the Abyssinian is a quite petite cat it has a LARGE appetite! They eat just about anything, and all food has to be tested at least once – they do not always want it the second time you serve it, but hey – they’re cats! That goes for different kinds of raw vegetables, where as sweet corn, popcorn, peas, shellfish and of course meat (all kinds) are almost always safe bets with Abyssinians – you have to watch your plate when you have an Aby in the house!

The Abyssinian is available in 8 colours – ruddy, sorrel, blue and fawn combined with the silver varieties: black silver, sorrel silver, blue silver and fawn silver.

There is of course a written standard (FIFe standard) which describes how an Aby should ideally look, it is used by the judges at shows and can be a bit “cryptic” (there is a lot of special terms).