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The Siamese cat is a breed destined to make its name on the "history of the world's pet cat epidemic".
"You used to ride on your chrome horse with your diplomat, Who carried on his shoulder a siamese cat," a lyric from Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone.
<h1>A famous song, a famous cat</h1>
Because the lyrics were exceptionally beautifully written, Bob Dylan won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, and "Like a Rolling Stone" is one of his most famous works. Written in 1965, this famous song describes the uninhibited life of the young generation in Europe and the United States in the 1960s, chasing the wind from all over the world, and also discusses and thinks about the ups and downs of the "rich N generation".
Even after more than half a century, the lyrics of "Like a Rolling Stone" now feel outdated, and they can still be deafening and alarming.
Bob Dylan and "Like a Rolling Stone"
Some of the pictures depicted in the song also let people who pay attention to pets know: at that time, those high-society young people who entered prestigious schools, wore diamonds, crossed BMW (riding motorcycles), and carried beautiful people, originally liked to keep Siamese cats.
<h1>The most popular in the world, professional for 120 years</h1>
In Bob Dylan's song, the Siamese cat is like a standard pet for a dumb boy, but it's not just a fool who deserves it.
The history of the Siamese cat tells you that it is a breed of cat that has been "professional" for 120 years, and it is currently the largest registered pedigree breed in the world.
Stills from the movie "The Story of Love" 1
As a representative of the famous Oriental cat and shorthair cat, the Siamese cat is considered to be one of the oldest cat breeds. As the name suggests, the Siamese cat is believed to have originated in Thailand and is the "royal cat of Siam" with noble and legendary qualities.
According to some historical records, in 1884, the King of Siam gave the British Consul General in Thailand a Siamese cat as a farewell gift, which was considered a great honor because the cat was raised by the royal family in the royal palace. Since then, the Siamese cat has attracted the attention of the Western public, and the following year also participated in the cat exhibition, and countless people met the Siamese cat for the first time!
As the saying goes, foreign good cats are loved (10,000 years ago, I said, hee-hee), in the pet "sublime foreign" complex, European and American people have always been so, they are very receptive to the Siamese cat, the "oriental cat" breed, even if it has a "dirty coal-digging face".
As for the pedigree of breed cats, European and American societies have always been more concerned, after all, the various breed cat clubs and breed cat enthusiast organizations that they first orchestrated are the promoters of breed cats "from niche to public" and spread to the world (marketization reasons are not excluded).
As early as 1899, Mrs. Robert Locke founded the Beresford Cat Club as its first president; she also owned the first registered Siamese cat in the United States. Since then, the development of breed cats has become more and more professional, and in 1902, the first Siamese cat lovers club was established in Britain.
History of the Siamese cat
After 1920, Siamese cats also became increasingly popular in the United States. At first, it was professional cat lovers who promoted their breeding Siamese cats, and later, the famous ladies and social celebrities who liked to keep cats played an important leading role. And the "advertising role" of movie stars is even more powerful, like several famous female stars in Hollywood - Vivien Leigh, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor (Yu Po) have owned Siamese cats, who do not want to have a bean-loving cat, can be hugged and held high? (See the 10,000-year article "Siamese Cat: The Pet of the Goddess Vivien Leigh, the Pug in the Cat, Born Noble but a Coal Boss)"
Left: Vivien Leigh; Top Middle: Marilyn Monroe; Bottom Middle: Elizabeth Taylor
In the 1950s and 1960s, probably a golden age of Siamese cat transmission, in addition to celebrities holding Siamese cats from time to time, Siamese cats also appeared on the big screen. For example, in the 1958 release of "Capture love", the black cat that was originally the standard for witches was replaced by a Siamese cat, which highlighted the fun of the soul in the mystery and deduced a different cat style.
Stills from the movie "The Story of Love" 2
The power of example is infinite, in this way, raising Siamese cats has gradually become the hobby of those local tycoons who "have mines at home", local tycoons, men and women, young and old, and rich children are more keen to show their personality. This social phenomenon was written into the song by the super observant Bob Dylan, and became a "nail" hanging the lyrics of "Like a Rolling Stone". (Dumas once said that history was the nail in his novel.) ）
After that, the celebrities who owned Siamese cats continued, and more and more men began to pick up the cat breed, such as One of Bob Dylan's "good brothers" and the famous beatle soul figure , John Lennon.
John Lennon and his Siamese cat
<h1>Apple head, or wedge head? </h1>
There is an opinion that Siamese cats are "unnatural in nature" and "unnatural nightmare of a cat". This means that while the Siamese cat is a "naturally occurring" breed with no human intervention (breeding) and its ancestors are the native Thai earth cats (wildcats), the breed standards of modern cat love associations (such as the CFA) define the head of the Siamese cat as wedge-shaped, and this wedge-shaped head is the result of "unnatural intervention", that is, the result of artificial and selective breeding.
This is actually a famous dispute about the shape of the Siamese cat's head – an apple head, or a wedge head?
That said, there are two basic body types in the Siamese cat breed in the world today, the difference in head is most obvious: one is the traditional (apple head) Siamese cat, and the other is the extreme (wedge-headed) Siamese cat.
The cat slave who loves apple heads believes that the apple head Siamese cat is beautiful and cute, and looks most like the original Siamese cat, which is called the original ecology! The cat slave who follows the wedge-shaped head insists that the wedge head is both elegant and exquisite, which is called exotic and mysterious and noble!
And 10,000 years of this debate to maintain a "and thin mud" attitude: beauty is diverse, human beings have round-faced beauties and pointed-faced beauties, both apple heads and wedge-shaped heads are cute Siamese cats.
Of course, in fact, there is still a difference between the two, for example, when a cat slave wants to buy a wedge-headed Siamese cat, the choice range is indeed not as large as that of an apple head.
<h1>The status of the jianghu has gradually been overtaken</h1>
In fact, for Siamese cats, it does not matter what the head shape is.
Most importantly, with the increasing choice of cat slaves, its "popular first pet cat" status has been challenged by many cat breeds, and has been overtaken by latecomers - the British shorthair cat, the American shorthair cat, the two major breeds of cats are strong "competitors", and other personalized cat breeds such as exotic shorthair cats and ragdoll cats are also constantly dividing the pet cat market. For example, in China, the status of Siamese cats is only ranked 5th in the "Pet Cat Feeding Ranking" (for details, see the 10,000 article "Chinese Cat Ranking Top 5, No. 1 Pastoral Cat is Normal, No. 5 is a bit of an accident")
It can be said that "there are pet cats in the Jiangshan Generation, and each has led the way for several years." Siamese cats can be popular for more than a century, it is already a miracle, a miracle is difficult to get again.
Pet Movie Song Series – Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone
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