As rumor has it, the Pixie-Bob cat breed got its start when a barn cat and a coastal bobcat had a litter of kittens together. Even though today’s Pixie-Bob cats have no while Bobcat DNA, their size suggests that there might be something to this old story.
The first records of Pixie-Bob cats come from Carol Ann Brewer of Mount Baker, Washington. In 1985, she bought a male cat with a short tail, a spotted coat, and polydactyl paws. The following January, she rescued a starving male cat that weighed in at 17 pounds even though it was skin and bones. This cat, named Keba, also had a bobtail and was rumored to have been produced as a result of a meeting between a domestic female cat and a male Bobcat.
Keba mated with a neighbor’s brown tabby female cat and in April 1986, that Queen had kittens. Brewer One of the females and named her “Pixie.” The following year, Pixie became a founding member of the Pixie-Bob breed.
For the next few years, Brewer searched for cats that were believed to be the result of naturally occurring meetings between domestic cats and wild bobcats. She added 23 of them to her breeding program in all, using the term “Legend cats” as a trademark. Other breeders joined the effort, collaborating with Brewer to form a broad genetic pool. Eventually, today’s Pixie-Bob breed was fully developed.
Carol Ann Brewer led efforts to register the new breed. The International Cat Association granted recognition in 1993 as part of the exhibition category. In 1996, TICA granted new breed and color status. In 1998, the Pixie-Bob cat was finally granted championship status.