The head is rather short, when viewed in profile. It is rounded viewed from every prospective, rounded forehead and top, rounded at the cheek bones, but with a definite whisker break to the muzzle. The nose shows a definite curve at the eye level. The muzzle is short (medium-short, as written in standards, which means not too short) and broad.
The neck is rather short and thick.

The ears are quite large, open and wide at the base, very slightly pointed at the tip. The cup (at the base of the auricle) is very prominent. The ears are set slightly upright, but not too close together.

One gets immediately caught by the strikingly large eyes, which are slightly almond shaped, and have an extremely brilliant colour. Eye colour cann be yellow, hazel or green.

The body is slightly stocky, very well muscled. Body and legs form a square.
The legs are strong, very well muscled. The paws are fine and oval in shape.
The tail shall reach to the shoulder blads, is very slightly tapered with a blunt tip.

The coat is very unique for this breed. It is fine, very short and lies close to the body.
The coat is ticked in dark brown (called sepia) on the upper side of the body, the base colour is a light beige ivory. Chin, chest, underside of the body and inner side of the legs are quite light in colour, light ivory colour. The inner side of the front legs and the knees of the hind legs may show some barring.
Tabby markings in the face: the typical tabby markings ("M") on the forehead, maskara markings around the eyes and spirals on the cheeks, also the nose bridge is slightly darker coloured in dark brown. The eyes have eyeliners and the nose has a rim in dark brown. The apertures of the whiskers (the point, where the whiskers come out) are also dark brown.
The hairs between the toes are coloured in dark brown.

The breed is slow maturing, taking two to three years to reach the full type of an adult. The males are larger and heavier than the females.

History

The origin of the Singapura is somewhat controverse and mysterious.
The breed was first presented to CFA in 1981 by Tommy and Hal Meadow (Usaf cattery) as so called natural breed originating directly from Singapore's drain cats. When the Meadows returned in 1975 from Singapore to the USA, they brought three cats with them, which they claimed to be Singapore's native drain cats and thus being the foundation cats of the Singapura breed: Puss'e, a young female, Ticle, a male kitten, and Tes, his female littermate. Tommy Meadow had been alaways interested in brown and ticked cats, as she was breeding Abyssinians, Burmese and Siamese since beginning of 1955. But records from the Primary Production Department (PPD) of Singapore and the Singapore Cat Club revealed, that these 3 cats - Puss'e, Ticle and Tes - were already amongst the couple's six Burmese and Abyssinians, when they arrived in Singapore in 1974. (1)
The questions about the natural origin of the Singapura breed were raised in 1990 by one of CFA's Singapura breed clubs. When Mr. and Mrs. Meadow attended CFA's board meeting in February 9-10, 1991, to provide information regarding the origin of the breed,  Mr. Meadow told the board that the original cats were imported in 1971 via boat without export or import papers. Tes, Ticle, and Puss'e were the offspring (grandchildren) of the unnamed four original boat cats. (2)
George and Gladys were one of the first generations from Ticle and Puss'e.

Wether the Singapura breed originated from a crossbreeding between Abyssinians and Burmese, made by the Meadows in Michigan, or resulted from those undocumented imported four boat cats, claimed to had been imported in 1971, there is at least one documented import from Singapore: On April 22, 1980, Chiko, a Singapura female straight from the drains of Singapore arrived to Seattle, WA, imported by Brad and Sheila Bowers with the help of the SPCA's veterinarian, Dr. Lee.
In 1987 Gerry Mayes, a retired engineer and early Singapura breeder from Atlanta, GA, went to Singapore for a longer stay. Gerry Mayes was able to import some more drain cats from Singapore to the USA, with the help of Singapore's Cat Club president, Mrs Lucy Koh. Although the Singapura cats imported by Mr. Mayes were not eligible for CFA registration, their offspring were eligable to be registered with a five generation pedigree. Amongst those imported cats from Singapore, one cat named Bull, was featured in an article of Singapore's newspaper, The Straits Times, 31 December 1989. (3)

Amongst the early breeders of the Singapura to be mentioned were:
Barbara Gilbertson, who was amongst the first breeders of Singapura cats and took a major step towards the success of the Singapura in the late 1978 with her breeding pair Rummy, female, and Thumper, male.
Other early breeders to be mentioned were Helen Cherry, Jo Cobery, Alice Dilts, Alice Faber, Florence Greenburg, Priscilla Hobbs, Catherine MacQuarrie, Nancy Mattos, Gerry Mayes, Tord Svenson, and Mary Tichenor.

Already since 1981 the Singapura was eligable for registration with CFA and has been given championship status in 1988.

In 1998 the first Singapuras were imported to the UK. Carole Thompson, Gloucestershire, imported a female called Imago's Faye Raye of Usaf, which was pregnant and gave birth to 3 kittens in quarantine, called Muffy, Mimi and Kuan. Scricobery's Indah followed shortly afterwards and provided suitable matings to Faye and her 2 daughters, Muffy and Mimi. Kuan, the male littermate, was sent to Canada, where he became a Quadruple Grand Champion in ACFA.

Pat and Eddie Bell of Northumberland bought some cats from Carole Thompson, and also Debbie Van Den Berg and Mal, her partner, were taken with the breed. They purchased their first two girls from Pat and Eddie Bell: Tolgoblin Sweet Saffron (Saffie) and Tolgoblin Esmirelda Ofmine (Esme) joined the household and also Changis Singing Purs Theo, an import from the USA,  joined them. Theo was the mate for the two girls as well as for Tolgoblin Elven Princess, who was a half sister to Saffron and Esmirelda.
Although the breed had full championship status with all the American registering bodies, it still was not fully recognized by the GCCF. Debbie and Mal exhibited their cats at many GCCF shows. There was enough interest in the breed that a breed club was founded in 1993. By 1997 54 cats were registered with the GCCF and Singapuras were granted Preliminary status. 9 cats gained their Merit certificates at the National Cat Club Show in 1997.
By June 2002 the breed had achieved the required criteria to be advanced to Provisional Status and the cats were winning Intermediate certificates and winning miscellaneous classes against well established breeds. They were also eligible to compete at the GCCF Supreme Show for the award of Best Provisional Breed, which was won in 2002 by Mrs Larmour's Sarwillou Kyu Kyusu.
At least by October 2004 the breed had achieved the criteria to get the full Championship status, which was granted from the beginning of the next show season in June 2005. By July 2006 the first Imperial Grand Champion had been crowned and by the 17th November 2007 the first two UK Imperial Grand Champions, Imperial Grand Champion Valisa Bertie Bassett and Imperial Grand Champion Goldlay Worth Thewait, had brought the breed to the very top in GCCF.

(1) You may read the article of Annalisa Dass about the origin of the Singapura breed, published on 23-Apr-1999, National Library Board Singapore.
 

(2) 1991-1992 CFA Yearbook, page 635, columns 2-4

(3) The Straits Times, 31 December 1989, Page 17, archived in the National Library Singapore.

 

Famous early catteries

Temperament

Grooming

Almost no grooming required. But it is recommended to brush the coat regularly to keep the shining coat and to remove dead hairs.