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It's an Itty Bitty Kitty

Denise Flaim | Animal House

March 5, 2002

ABOUT EIGHT years ago, Beth Fillman rescued Zoey, a funny-looking cat with legs so short and stumpy that the vet, predicting she would be crippled, recommended euthanasia.

Fillman, of Bridgehampton, didn't take the advice. Soon after, a friend came back from a cat show and announced, "I think your cat is a Munchkin."

It turned out Zoey was a new breed of feline that surfaced here about a decade ago, so rare at the time that one cat sold for $15,000. Today, Munchkins are more mainstream: They were the "cover cat" on the April issue of Cat Fancy, and have been recognized as a bona- fide breed by The International Cat Association, which in May will confer "championship status" to the Oz-inspired critters so they can compete alongside Maine Coons and Persians. Prices vary, but Fillman says $500 to $600 is average, with show cats going for significantly more.

Though nicknamed the "dachshund of the cat world," the Munchkin has a cobbier, more corgi-ish outline. Available in all colors, the vertically challenged cats can be long- or shorthaired, and weigh 5 to 7 pounds.

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Unlike many of their longer- legged brethren, Munchkins are said to be kittenish and friendly, taking themselves less seriously. They are very agile and have the bunnylike habit of sitting up on their haunches. Because of their short legs, they don't jump as high as many other cats, but jump they do - on beds, chairs and some tabletops, though counters are usually out of their range.

Audrey Law of Calgary, Alberta, one of the few Munchkin breeders in Canada, says "Munchies" have caused "quite a sensation" in the cat world - and not always in the positive sense.

"Everyone's concept of a cat is this long, elegant animal, and the short legs sort of took that away," she explains. Many cat fanciers also assumed the Munchkin's unusual structure would lead to health problems.

Solveig Pflueger of Suffield, Conn., a cat show judge and physician who specializes in genetics, admits that, at first, she shared their skepticism and even planned to use the cats to study birth defects in humans. "People thought, 'They're crippled, they can't run, they can't have kittens.' But I was very surprised to find out these were healthy - they had no handicaps and reproduced just fine. And they are adorable."

Pflueger became such a convert that she has bred Munchkins for the past decade and has been instrumental in getting the breed recognized by the cat association.

Munchkins result from a dominant gene that Pflueger says "probably has a very high spontaneous mutation rate." Munchkin litters often contain long-legged cats as well - "non-standards" in Munchie parlance. The cats have been noted all over the world, from Japan to England, where they were first documented in the 1930s. Many, but not all, of the Munchkins in this country derive from a Louisiana stray named Blackberry.

But all is not rosy in Munchkin Land. Diana Scollard, a veterinarian from Absarokee, Mont., quit breeding Munchkins when she discovered the breed is prone to lordosis, a dwarfism-related disease in which the sternum and spine grow so close together that there isn't enough room for the heart and lungs.

While some Munchkin breeders admit that lordosis is a problem in a few lines, they add that other cat breeds, such as Bengals, have the same problem. Scollard replies that the Munchkin variety is unique, exhibiting dwarfed muscles that in effect strangle the cat's normal vertebrae.

"This is a problem in dwarf breeds," says Scollard, who is working with a genetics expert to isolate the responsible gene. "Sooner or later, if you concentrate it enough, you'll get it."