British Shorthair cats make excellent pets, but like most things in life you only get out what you put in. Lots of love and attention will be repaid one-hundred fold from these lovely animals.

A compact, well balanced and powerful cat, showing good depth of body, full broad chest, short strong legs, rounded paws, thick tail with rounded tip. Small ears, round cheeks, firm chin, large round and well-opened eyes and a short broad nose. The coat to be short and dense. All in all a strong, muscular cat, with an alert appearance.

The rainbow of colours and patterns in which this cat is now produced is most impressive considering the humble beginnings. Colours as diverse as white, black, blue, red, cream, chocolate, lilac, tortoise shell, blue-cream and the latest cinnamon and fawn. All these colours are possible with the addition of white, resulting in bi and tri- colours. Patterned cats include the tabby, spotted, colour-pointed and tipped. Eye colour varies from gold or copper in the self's, bi and tri-colours, to green in the tipped, blue in the colour-pointed, and hazel in the black version of the silver tabby and silver spotted, the rest having gold eyes as their self counterparts. The blue is still the most popular, closely followed by the Silver Tabby.

Although cats are regarded as independent and spend a large amount of their time asleep or merely resting, they do, on the whole, appreciate company. The British Shorthair will quite happily live indoors, a much safer environment for it, but where there is no human company during the day, due to owners working etc., then it is kinder to have two cats as company for each other.The character of these cats is generally one of a gentle, willing to please, playful and affectionate companion. They are not noisy cats but will sometimes engage in conversation with you, especially if it is getting near to time for them to be fed. They enjoy a game of chase with a small toy, and some will fetch this back to you for to be thrown again. They are quite lazy at times and love nothing more than laying in front of the fire and luxuriating in the warmth.The general health of the British Shorthair is good, with no apparent weakness to affect it.

They have a life span of approximately 15 years, some living to a much riper old age of 20 years. The care of these cats is just general common sense. They need good quality food supplied at regular intervals, a bowl of fresh water to be available at all times. Cats are extremely clean, fastidious animals and under normal circumstance the most attention that a British Shorthair cat requires is love - and plenty of it.A warm bed out of draughts, should be provided - you will probably find that the type they prefer are around 24" of the floor and have an area of 4'6 x 6'0 and are usually covered with duvets