Editing Moggy (section)

===History===
Having apparently originated in [[Western Asia]], domestic long-haired cats have been kept as pets around the world for several centuries. During the 16th century, the first long-haired cats were imported into Europe. In the mid-17th century, when the [[Great Plague of London]] decimated much of [[London, England|London]]'s human population, the number of cats started to recover after centuries of persecution, as they were encouraged as protectors from flea-carrying rats.<ref name="World Encyclopedia of Cats">{{cite book |title=World Encyclopedia of Cats |first=Angela |last=Sayer |pages=40–41 |publisher=Chartwell Books |location=Secaucus, New Jersey}}</ref>

How the variant developed is still a matter of speculation. The long coat may have been the result of a [[Recessive gene|recessive mutant gene]]. When a long-haired cat is mated to one with a short coat, only short-haired kittens can result; however, their offspring, when mated, can produce a proportion of long-coated kittens. Successive litters of early European long-haired cats produced more and more long-coated offspring, which were more likely to survive in the cooler European climates. By the year 1521, around the time they were first documented in Italy, the variety had become fixed after only a few generations.<ref name="Domestic Cat × Pallas's Cat">{{cite web |url=http://www.macroevolution.net/felis-catus-x-felis-manul.html |title=Domestic Cat × Pallas's Cat |publisher=Macro Evolution |access-date=2 June 2014 |archive-date=20 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180120073427/http://www.macroevolution.net/felis-catus-x-felis-manul.html |url-status=live}}</ref>[[File:Mia Moran's cat Fish staring outside a window at snow - Dec 2022.jpg|thumb|alt=A red tabby cat domestic long-hair and Maine Coon mix at 7 months staring outside a window at snow|A red tabby cat domestic long-hair and Maine Coon mix at 7 months]]In the late-18th century, [[Peter Simon Pallas]] advanced the hypothesis that the [[manul]] (also known as Pallas's cat) might be the ancestor of the long-haired domestic cat.<ref name="Domestic Cat × Pallas's Cat" /> He had anecdotal evidence that established even though the male offspring would be sterile hybrids, the female offspring could again reproduce with domestic cats and pass on a small proportion of the manul's genes.<ref name="Long Haired Cats">{{cite web |url=http://messybeast.com/longhair-cats.htm |title=Long Haired Cats |year=2013 |author=Sarah Hartwell |publisher=Messy Beast |access-date=2 June 2014 |archive-date=1 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141001153554/http://messybeast.com/longhair-cats.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1907, zoologist [[R. I. Pocock|Reginald Innes Pocock]] refuted this claim, citing his work on the skull differences between the manul and the Angoras or Persians of his time.<ref name="Long Haired Cats" /> This early hypothesis overlooked the potential for crossbreeding within the family [[Felidae]]. For example, the [[Savannah cat]] is a crossbreed between a [[domestic short-haired cat]] and a wild [[serval]]—both of which have different skulls and evolutionary lineage. Furthermore, hybrid females in the related genus ''[[Panthera]]'', such as [[liger]]s and [[tigon]]s, have successfully mated, producing [[tiliger]]s and [[litigon]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/barcrofttv/taligers-half-tiger-half-liger-cubs-born-in-usa-af4a |title=Taligers: Half Tiger Half Liger Cubs Born In USA |date=14 April 2014 |website=BuzzFeed |language=en |access-date=4 April 2019 |archive-date=4 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404053243/https://www.buzzfeed.com/barcrofttv/taligers-half-tiger-half-liger-cubs-born-in-usa-af4a |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Singh |first=Atiya |title=Okapis and litigons in London and Calcutta |journal=New Scientist |date=25 April 1985 |issue=1453 |pages=7}}</ref>

The first modern, formal breeds of long-haired cats were the [[Persian cat|Persian]] and the [[Angora cat|Angora]] (named after [[Ankara, Turkey]]) and were said to have come from those two areas.<ref name="World Encyclopedia of Cats" />