The word "Ceylon" is the British name for "Sri Lanka." The Ceylon is one of the few natural domestic cat breeds.

Its expressive face includes an almost smile-like greeting to the humans they bond with. You'll delight in just how active and playful the Ceylon can be. They are known for their splendid agility, which derives from their strong and compact bodies. The elegant appearance of the Ceylon is accented by a set of radiant eyes. It just might be a luminescent, almost day-dreamy gaze that draws you in for a closer look at this exotic feline.

The Ceylon's coat is of a short, fine texture, silky to the touch, and with only a slight undercoat. Although the Ceylon's original coloring was a sandy-golden hue with markings in black, various colorings are now available. The palette of coat colors includes shades of honey, sand, cinnamon, ginger, pearl, and jet-black. It is thought that in Europe Ceylon's in red, blue, cream and tortoiseshell can be found. Their coat patterns seem to vary too. Ticked tabby felines are distinctively marked with a ticked back, spotted underside, striped legs and cheeks, and rings that encircle the tail and collect to create a black tip. Ceylon's with a wild ticked pattern are quite similar, but rarely have striped markings on their legs. The entire bodies of the tabby patterned cats are garnished with tabby draws. Akin with its origins as a hunter, the ears of the Ceylon are large and set very high above their foreheads. The distinctive marking on the Ceylon's forehead is referred to as a cobra pattern. It is medium-sized, but far from just an average cat, do to the mysteries that surround its origins.

Archeological evidence suggests that some of the abundant wild cats in Sri Lanka eventually became temple cats. These temple cats are probably the predecessors of the Ceylon. Dr. Paolo Pellegatta has been singled-out as recognizing the Ceylon. He observed the villagers of Sri Lanka upholding the cobra pattern on the Ceylon's forehead as a sign of good fortune. Italy has been developing the Ceylon breed since 1984.

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