bout LaPerms

The Basics

To read more detailed information about the breed, click on the links above.

How the LaPerm got it's Name
as told by Linda Koehl

Hi everybody.  I just made a great buy on the Golden Gate Bridge and I will sell it to you for $100,000.00.  If you believe that you will believe anything you see in print.

O.K. people, this is the truth from the horses mouth.  I have never been a hairdresser.  Now I will tell once and for all where the name "La Perm" came from.

A long, long time ago, The Dalles, where I live, was a great meeting place for many tribes to gather and trade.  When they described this place they referred to it as the place below Celilo Falls where the rapids, ripples and curls were in the river.  The Falls no longer exist, they were covered when The Dalles Dam was built.  As might be expected the whole river has been changed in appearance also.  The ripples were for the shorthaired LP's which has a somewhat "marcelled" appearance, the curls in the rapids were for the longhaired LP's.  The name Le Dalles was given this area by the French and Belgian fur traders who populated the area.  According to one story it referred to the flat rocks in the river which reminded them of street stones back in Europe.  The original cats reminded me of someone with a bad permanent.  I originally wanted "The Dalles La Perm", somehow it ended up being just La Perm, it was not intended to be "cutesy" .  There was one suggestion of "The Dallies" (Ugh)

Someone please file this someplace in case someone asks for info.

Regards, Linda

(Duly filed for prosperity Linda!!!)

marcelled: A hairstyle characterized by deep regular waves made by a heated curling iron. [After Marcel Grateau (1852-1936), French hairdresser.]
 

REMEMBER a LaPerm is more than a cat with a curly coat!!!

Traditionally the cats have these two letter combinations in their names: BC, BB, BS.
BC = Born Curly
BB = Born Bald
BS = Born Straight

Some breeders outside of the United States have dropped using these, which only leads to more confusion about the genetic makeup of the breed.

Many also have American Native sounding names because of the tie to the  Wishram tribe that lived in The Dalles, the home of the breed.

Although Curly was born in 1982 it was not until the early 1990s that steps were taken to establish the unique cats as a pedigree breed. Interest grew quickly and wherever the cats were seen they received a positive response. Very soon a group of breeders and judges were working together.

The breed is still rare and although the majority of breeders are in the USA, there are now breeders in Canada, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, Holland, Germany, Russia, France and the UK.

As of 2005, there are only a few Registries that have awarded the LaPerm Championship status, so you will not see a lot of titles or show wins, but this does not take away from the quality of cats being produced.

Much of the information found here are excerpts from the book "THE LAPERM CAT - THE NEW WAVE IN CATS FOR THE MILLENNIUM" written by  A.D. Lawrence,  with excerpts from Linda Koehl, founder of the breed and Jean Hofve, DVM.  It is reprinted here with her permission and cannot be reprinted without her express permission

Line drawings by Thomas Love and Tiffany Lawrence