Where are American Bobtail cats from?

There is no clear answer as to where American Bobtail cats are from, as the breed has a somewhat mysterious origin story. However, this breed is believed to have originated in the United States during the late 1960s. The discovery of these cats is attributed to a couple, John and Brenda Sanders, who found a short-tailed kitten while on a road trip in Arizona. This kitten, named Yodie, is thought to be the progenitor of the American Bobtail breed.

Yodie was a male cat with a distinctive bobtail, and he was mated with a domestic long-haired female cat, resulting in a litter of kittens who also exhibited the bobtail trait. This suggests that Yodie may have had a natural genetic mutation leading to the shortened tail, which was then passed on to his offspring. The genetic lineage of the American Bobtail is, therefore, rooted in domestic cats with a likely spontaneous mutation that caused the bobtail.

Over the subsequent decades, breeders worked to refine and standardize the breed, introducing other domestic cats to broaden the gene pool while maintaining the signature bobtail characteristic. The American Bobtail was officially recognized as a distinct breed by various cat registries, including The International Cat Association (TICA), in 1989.