Bombay
A small black shadow, permanently attached to the warmest person.
- velcro
- heat-seeking
- sociable
- solid
- chatty
- lap-committed
Why you are a Bombay
You locate the warmest available spot and the most agreeable available person, and ideally those are the same thing. You are sociable in a genuinely uncomplicated way — you like people, you assume they like you, and you are usually right. You are heavier than you look and you deploy that fact on laps. You are not demanding like a Siamese; you are simply always there, which people find either delightful or slightly comic.
The real Bombay
A deliberately constructed breed, created by Nikki Horner in Kentucky and accepted by CFA in 1966 — not the 1950s, as is often repeated — by crossing sable Burmese with black American Shorthairs. The goal was explicit: a cat that looked like a miniature black panther. Horner called her creation a "parlor panther," and the breed remains black-only with copper eyes to this day. The coat is the point: short, fine and satin-like, lying very close to the body with an unusually high sheen, so the cat reads as a single solid shadow rather than a textured animal. Because the breed was built from Burmese stock it inherits that Burmese build — CFA describes a medium-sized, muscular cat that is surprisingly heavy for its size — and that shared ancestry is also why it shares some of the Burmese genetic background.
- Registry status
- CFA: yes, accepted 1966. TICA: yes.
- Origin
- Kentucky, USA — deliberately constructed by Nikki Horner from sable Burmese and black American Shorthairs.
- Coat
- Short, fine, satin-like and very close-lying, with a notably high sheen. Black only.
- Size (registry wording)
- CFA describes a medium-sized, muscular cat, surprisingly heavy for its size, with a rounded head and a short, broad, well-developed muzzle.
- Weight — commonly cited, not registry-verified
- 8–15 lb (3.6–6.8 kg)
- Lifespan — commonly cited by breed guides
- 12–16 years
A note on those two figures. No cat registry publishes numeric weight ranges — CFA and TICA standards are descriptive — so any weight you see anywhere, including here, comes from commercial sources. And the two lifespan rows measure different things: life expectancy at birth includes kittens that do not survive, so it runs lower than the ranges breed guides quote. They are shown separately because averaging them would produce a number that is true of nothing.
Honestly, what is hard about a Bombay?
A Bombay wants to be on a person essentially all the time and seeks out heat relentlessly, so it does poorly in a household that is empty all day.
Documented in the breed
The craniofacial defect associated with an ALX1 deletion is documented in the breed group — published affected breeds are American Shorthair, Bombay and Burmese — and the homozygous form is not compatible with life. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is also documented (CFA).
This is general, descriptive information about a breed, drawn from registry statements and veterinary literature. It is not veterinary advice and says nothing about any individual cat.
One more thing
Nikki Horner set out to breed a cat that looked like a miniature black panther and called the result a "parlor panther" — the breed is still black-only, with copper eyes.
The other 17 results
While you are here
- Cat Name Generator — thousands of names by colour, theme and gender.
- Cat Age Calculator — convert cat years to human years, with a full chart.
- Cat Personality Test — profile your own cat instead of yourself.
Quiz results are for entertainment. Breed information is general and descriptive, is not veterinary advice, and does not describe any individual cat. For questions about your own cat's health, please consult your veterinarian.