In 1977, wildlife artist Jeni Slater found a cat and kittens living near the edge of a forest on a tract of land her family owned in Kenya’s eastern Sokoke district. She eventually took two kittens: A male and a female, and from these two, a new cat breed was formed.
Because the cats she found had such unusual markings, Slater believed that they might be wildcats, although other theories suggest that the queen might have been a cross between a domestic cat and a wildcat, or that the cat might have had a genetic mutation that led to her unique appearance. Another theory – and the most probably – is that the foundation cats were feral khadzonzo cats, which are naturally occurring domestic cats.
In 1978, Slater began her breeding program in earnest, using cats from the Watamu area. Some were obtained as kittens, and others were adult feral cats that she tamed with the help of food rewards. The Sokoke cat breeding program was expanded in 1983, when Gloria Moeldrop brought a pair of Slater’s cats to Denmark. These cats were shown beginning in 1984.
In 1987, Slater brought in another cat to enhance genetic diversity. This time, it was a darker-colored street cat, also from Watamu. It is possible that the lynx point pattern seen in some Sokoke cats originated with this individual.
The Denmark breeding program expanded in 1989, with the addition of more cats from Kenya. Around the same time, Jeni Slater provided foundation stock to an Italian breeder named Bob Schwartz.
Later, Jeannie Knocker, an English citizen who lived near Slater in Kenya, decided to gather more feral cats from the Sokoke forest area. These produced litters that were eventually exported to Europe and the United States. With these cats came a new line of Sokoke cats, with distinct differences from those from Slater’s breeding line. It is possible that other breeds contributed to today’s Sokoke cats, however no one knows for certain.
Federation Intternationale Feline (FIFe) granted Sokoke cats official registration in 1993. To date, the only other registries that recognize Sokoke cats are The International Cat Association (TICA), the Canadian Cat Association (CCA), and the UK Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF).