The Norwegian Forest Cat
 A Nordic Fairytaile

  The History

No one else than Mother Nature created these wonderful Kings of the Forest.
When the old Vikings went to the oriental, they brought longhaired cats back with them,
to protect the ships from mice.
These cats had to change their outfit in order to survive this rough climat.
Evolution gave the toughest ones a hand and they created their typical marks:
their water-repellent topcoat covers a dense, more woolly undercoat,
wich gives them a marvellous protection against the cold and snowy climat of Scandinavia.
With their "snowboots" ( tufts of fur between the toes ) they can walk majestically through the snow.
Their behind is also covered with a lot of fur, the so called  'knickerbockers'.
Even these 'knickerbockers' are protected by their long bushy tail.
Their chest, cheeks and neck are protected by a lot of fur (a full ruff and brisket), which makes them a bit look like a lion.
Because only the strongest cats could survive, the Norwegian Forest Cat is a very big and strong built cat.
In the summertime they lose their wintercoat and only the bushy tail
reminds of the fact, that we are dealing with a NFO.

The old Norse myths already spoke of "Magic Cats" with a long bushy tail,
who pulled the "chariot" of the goddess Freya.
In the 1970`s the NFO was officially recognized by the FIFE.
It was Pan`s Truls, who made them decide, that the NFO had to become an official breed,
not only because he was so impressive....

Pans Truls

The Temper

Norwegian Forestcats have a wonderful temper, wich is hard to discribe with in a few words.
They are very gentle tigers, perfect to live with in the house.
Of cause they love climbing, wich they can do very wel,
but if you have a robust climbing-skratching tree, they wont climb, where they mustn`t.
Very important to these cats is, that you give them as much love and cozyness,
as they give you.
These are very intelligant cats, who aren`t only attached to theire habbitat,
but also to theire humans (theire family).
Because of this, they are very easy to raise and can eaven lern to apport little balls etc.
They love children and babys, are very solcial also a dog, rabbit or
eaven a ferret could be their best friend. So you could say: protect the cat from the baby :)

Pans Truls

Pans Truls

His shorthair mother Lucy with Pans Truls

Egyl Nylund with Pans Truls
Here you can see that even the prototype NFO male was not as BIG as they always claim it to be.
But still they look amazingly impressive in wintercoat or neutered!
I guess his weight was 4,5- 5kg

Pans Truls with Egyl grooming

Pans Truls - to me the REAL type NFO and my biggest IDOL :-)
A shame the judges don't remember this very special cat anymore...

Pans Thinge Ling on the left and Pans Truls on the right
This

Refering to some interesting NFO history sites:

Pans Truls

History