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Not so long ago, in a land not so far away, lived a fine lady who loved beautiful cats. She dreamed of creating a new breed of cat that would resemble miniature panthers: muscular, yet graceful, sinuous and sensuous, with gleaming jet black coats and eyes like glowing coals or shining copper pennies. The lady was the late Nikki Horner, of Shawnee Cattery in Louisville Kentucky. The breed she visualized as a mini-panther would eventually come to be known as the Bombay.

The Bombay is a blend of Sable Burmese and Black American Shorthair. With the exception of coat and eye color, however, the Bombay is much closer to the Burmese. The head should be rounded, with a short nose, but not as extremely short as you would expect to see on a Persian. The eyes are large and round, preferably a deep, vibrant copper in color, although gold is allowed. The body is firm and muscular, never soft and surprisingly heavy.

While the ideal Bombay body is a smidgen longer that the ideal Burmese body, there is a great deal of overlap, so it is perfectly proper for a Bombay to be every bit as short coupled as the average Burmese. In a mature Bombay, one can clearly see the taut muscles rippling beneath the sleek black coat, which is often compared to patent leather. The coat should be very short and close lying, so that it appears perfectly smooth, almost glass-like. The combination of gleaming black coat, rippling muscles, and mysterious copper eyes really does bring to mind the magical black panther of India.

		Nikki’s first attempts to create this “mini-panther” took place in the late 1950s. She experimented with crossing her Burmese to some black domestic shorthairs, but the results were most unsatisfactory, so the effort was abandoned after just a few litters. For the next few years Nikki concentrated on her Persians (especially the whites), her American Shorthairs (mostly silver tabbies) and her Burmese. She had Cat if the Year four times, Best Opposite Sex Cat four times, Best Kitten at least once, and over 100 grand champions. Shawnee was a large and obviously very successful cattery, and for many years Nikki was far too busy to even think much about her mini-panther fantasy, much less actually work on it. Finally around 1965, Nikki decided to go back and try again to create her vision, the beautiful mini-panther. She had decided to name them “Bombays” if she ever succeeded. This time around she used five pedigreed black Americans bred to her sable Burmese. The CFA Board of Directors accepted the Bombay breed for registration in June of 1970. By 1972, Nikki had produced over 100 Bombay kittens in 27 litters. By that time most of her breedings were Bombay to Bombay. The Bombay met the requirements for number of cats registered, had its own breed club by 1974, and was accepted for full championship statues as of May 1, 1976. The Bombay was finally a “real” breed, but within months of this accomplishment, Nikki Horner retired from breeding and showing, and sold out her cattery. In spite of the Bombay’s new championship status, the breed was not immediately accepted at first by some judges, exhibitors, and most of all by Burmese breeders. Many of them refused to allow Bombay breeders to use their Burmese studs or even purchase kittens for use in a Bombay breeding program. I can remember hearing exhibitors joking that, “Some judge was so out of touch that he or she actually put up a Bombay!” At the time I had only Persians, but that remark bothered my just the same. Were these people trying to say that no hybrid breed could ever be a good thing? What about the Burmese? Remember the Burmese is also classified as an established hybrid by CFA. Partially because of the extensive prejudice, and partially because most of them weren’t all that good yet, Bombays weren’t exactly lighting up the sky at the shows. Bombays in finals were few and far between. It took six years to get ten Bombay grands, and most of them were three to four years old by the time they granded. In 1977, Herb Zwecker acquired one of Nikki’s Bombays from someone who could not keep her. He fell hard for the breed (after years of working exclusively with Burmese) even though the cat never finaled. She was already several years old, and he was unable to successfully breed her. He thought that was probably the only Bombay he’d ever see, and certainly the only one he would ever own. Not too many years later, Herb and I took in a cute little tortie kitten that came around begging for food at my parents’ business. She had a fairly short face, big round copper eyes, very intense red and black coloring, and she was just adorable. She was very tiny when we first got her, and so skinny we weren’t sure she’d make it. She was healthy though, and filled out rapidly. After a few months we decided to try to find a pet home for her. Since no one ever called us looking for torties, we decided to take her along to shows. She had a fabulous personality, and was such a flashy, pretty cat that we were sure someone would take her. Unfortunately, the public had no interest in a pretty little domestic shorthair.
GP Night Sky's Furfilled Destiny. Br/Ow: Jo Ann and James Arnett

GC, RW Charliecats Black Hawk of Timari. CFA's Best of Breed 1997 and the Gulf Shore Region's 15th Best Cat and Best of Breed 1997 and Best of Breed 1996. Br: Charlie and Mary Lynn Farmer. Ow: Mary Hughes Bruesch.

GC Keijik's B.B. Bravo of Charliecat's. Br: Charlene Gould, Ow: Charlie and Mary Lynn Farmer

GC Charliecat's Joanne Thompson. CFA's 3rd Best of Breed 1998 and Gulf Shore Region's 24th Best Cat and Best of Breed 1998. Br/Ow: Charlie and Mary Lynn Farmer.

GC Charliecat's Sean Dubh. Br/Ow: Charlie and Mary Lynn Farmer