[Ads-l] Ocicat

[Ben Zimmer]

"ocicat": OED3 1970 (2012 entry), M-W 1967

---
https://www.newspapers.com/article/news-herald-ocicat/199053368/
Daily News (Port Clinton, Ohio), Mar. 24, 1965, p. 3, col. 4
The Maumee Valley Cat Club will celebrate its tenth anniversary with its
eighth annual championship show to be held April 3 and 4 at the Lucas
County Recreation Center at the Fair Grounds in Maumee.
Cats from 20 states and Canada will be judged in the purebred classes
competing for ribbons, rosettes and trophies.
New breeds and colors will be on exhibition, including the Ocicat, thought
to be a descendant of the ancient Egyptian fishing cat.
---
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-blade-ocicat/199053283/
The Blade (Toledo, Ohio), Apr. 5, 1965, p. 14, col. 5
Tonga is an ocicat and was the only one of his kind at the [Maumee Valley
Cat Club] show. He's a hybrid of Siamese-Abyssinian parentage, who wound up
with a spotted coat strikingly similar to an ocelot. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas
Brown, his owners, brought him from Detroit for the show which attracted
more than 200 entries.
---

On Sat, Jun 6, 2026 at 2:03 PM Emily Gordon <
0000205244c4ee9d-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> Have Ocicats been similarly documented? I learned about them from the
> writers James Wolcott and Laura Jacobs, who have owned several of these
> lithe jungle-esque cats. I imagine the first sighting of them also caused a
> stir.
>
> Surprisingly, they seem to be a relatively recent invention from a breeding
> whim in the fifties and sixties. The Cat Fancier’s Association has quite a
> tale to tell.
>
> As for the name:
>
> “In the first litter, and in subsequent litters, the much-sought-after
> Aby-pointed Siamese were produced along with mackerel tabbies, a lynx
> point, a solid black, and classic tabbies. In the second litter, a
> ‘spotted’ kitten was produced and upon seeing it Mrs. Daly’s daughter
> remarked, ‘It looks like a baby ocelot, let’s call him an Ocicat.’ This
> baby ocelot look-alike was named Tonga, and on that chilly day in Berkley,
> Michigan, an entirely new breed of cat was born.”
>
> https://cfa.org/ocicat-article/
>
>
> On Sat, Jun 6, 2026 at 10:20 AM Jonathan Lighter <
> 00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> > Earlier, from Newspapers.com:
> >
> > 1872 _Boston Evening Transcript_ (March 30)  4: A new breed of cats -
> > long furred, bushy-tailed felines - called "coon cats" are exciting
> > much interest in Mane, where five dollars is paid for a good specimen.
> >
> > 1872 _Brooklyn Eagle_ (Apr. 21) 1:  Coon cats worth $6 a piece are the
> > rage at present - in the western part of Maine.
> >
> > The same or similar squibs appeared nationally that year. Six bucks
> > then is about $165 now.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Sun, Feb 22, 2026 at 7:21 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > Amazingly absent from OED.
> > >
> > > 1877 _Daily Eastern Argus_ (Portland, Me.) (Oct. 31) 3: FREE
> EXHIBITIONS
> > of Photographs, Live Birds, Coon Cats, and other "Curiosities."
> > >
> > > 1878 _Evening Bulletin_ (Providence, R.I.) (Jan. 29) 4: A manx cat wins
> > a look, and so does a stately tiger cat...from an engine house at
> > Pawtucket. Last in the row is a coon cat, a funny specimen, having the
> ways
> > and some of the looks of both cat and raccoon.
> > >
> > > 1883 _Nashville Banner_ (Oct. 30) 3: The Maine wild coon cat was
> > expressed from Bangor yesterday, and is expected at the show to-day.
> > >
> > > JL
> > >
>

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