History of the Singapura

Today’s Singapuras remain unaltered from the early imports and are recognised as being the smallest breed of cat.
They are alert, healthy, and small to medium sized cats of foreign type. They have noticeably large eyes and ears and are to have the illusion of refined delicate colouring. All Singapuras come in one colour, which is sepia agouti also known as brown ticked tabby. Their muzzle, tummy chest and inner legs are all an un-ticked ivory. They have noticeable barring on the inner front leg and back knees only and cheetah lines that start from the inner corner of their eye and finish just behind their whisker pad.

Singapuras origins are from the Island of Singapore where they were referred to as the Singapore drain cat and later they became known as Kucinta, or the Singapore Love Cat. In 1990 Singapore chose to use the Kucinta as their national mascot and have statues of a Singapura cat and kittens alongside the river. The breeds name Singapura comes from the local Malay name for the island “Lion City”.

The Singapura was first imported to the USA from Singapore by Tommy and Hal Meadow. These were three ticked, sepia coloured Singapore drain cats (Tess, Tickle and Pusse). They were imported to the USA from Singapore in 1975. In 1980 another cat (Chico) was chosen and imported from Singapore to be used in the breeding program and so began the Singapura. The breed reached Championship status in the USA in 1988, the same year that they were first imported here in the UK. Carol Thompson brought in the first UK imports. The first cat being the pregnant female that was Imagos Faye Raye of Usaf, who kittened while in quarantine giving birth to Mimi, Muffy and Kuan. Sricoberys Indah followed shortly after as a suitable stud. Debbie Van Den Berg and her partner fell in love with the breed a little later and the Singapura breed becoming recognised in the UK was largely thanks to a lot of hard work and dedication from them.