Savannah Cat Breed History
Given the Savannah cat's wild appearance and personality, you might assume that breeders simply bred a kitten from the plains of Africa. And frankly, the history of this breed is not very far away. In the mid-1980s, a cat breeder in the United States, Judy Frank, took a serval cat named Ernie into her care. To Judy's surprise, one of her other cats, a Siamese, was a kitten by Ernie. This first known F1 kitten took the name "Miracle". Miracle's owners changed his name to Savannah (probably to reflect African Savannah heritage) and so started a new cat breed. The early breeding of the Savannah is attributed to Joyce Stuff and Patrick Kelly, who established the breed by 1996. Soon after, he submitted the breed standard to the International Cat Association (TICA). TICA then formally recognized the cat breed in 2012. However, apart from the specific breeding lines, much more can be said about the history of the Savannah cat. With that in mind, let's go back to wh...