Sokoke cats & kittens – perhaps the rarest cat breed in the world!
The Sokoke is a native cat breed naturally living in Arabuko-Sokoke Forest coastal region of Kenya, Africa, near the village of Watamu. The breed was discovered by Jeni Slater : “my gardener came to me one morning in 1978 and reported some strange kittens with a mother born in a hollow under a tree in my garden. I went to investigate, and saw, these huge eyes and big ears, and long tail erect and a smallish head with beautiful body markings. I knew immediately that this was something unusual and I therefore took a pair from the litter. With the help of the house staff I hand reared them. I had much experience in hand rearing orphaned animals during my farming days in Molo Kenya”.
Even nowadays local people in Arabuko-Sokoke forest area and nearby are not very familiar with the breed or even have never heard about it. When in 2008 we travelled to Kenya twice in order to try to find a local sokoke-breeder, we were able to spot only one person in the Watamu area who has sokoke cats, Mrs. Jeannie Knocker.
While in Kenya, we discovered that almost no-one, even the guides who work in the Arabuko-Sokoke forest every day, have never seen a single sokoke. The Arabuko-Sokoke Forest is East Africa’s largest surviving, dry coastal forest, situated ca 7 km from Watamu and 18 km from Malindi. On those photos made by us in the Forest, there are no sokokes but You are able to see some really big evidence of other inhabitants of this forest – elephants.
Nobody can estimate with great confidence the number of sokokes roaming freely in this forest.
In spite of the fact that the rules for importing cats into European Union are quite rigid and spotting the sokokes in the forest is no easy task at all, we have not given up the idea of finding and importing a sokoke from Kenya one day .
Sokokes are quite a rare breed. Some people even say it is the rarest cat breed in the world at all. That may easily be true. Most, but not all, of the sokokes living outside Kenya reside in Northern Europe and USA. According to different estimations there are probably around 30 fertile female sokokes living outside Kenya.
Today the breed of sokoke is recognized by FIFe, TICA and all other biggest cat-breeders organizations.
People who are favoured by the wonderful presence of a sokoke in their family, usually agree that these cats get very attached to other cats and also people in the household. Therefore their adaptation to their new home may take a bit longer than usual. Instead of spending their days on the lap of a human, purring, they prefer to run around with other cat(s) and play. Despite everything You may think, having heard about their origin, they do not show any signs of aggressiveness.
After returning from Kenya without any achievements concerning sokokes, we contacted a cattery in Norway named Kimburu, hoping we will be able to get a cat there. We are now lucky to „be owned by 2 sokokes“, both from Kimburu cattery. Kimburu Macheo, whom we call „Heri“ and Kimburu Osmi, who has about an hundred of different names at home. Most often we call her „Mutu“ (a rough translation from Estonian is something like „a small clean friendly old lady“). One parent of each of our sokokes has been imported from Kenya and born in Sokoke-Arabuko forest.
We live in Estonia, in a small village about 35 kilometers from the capital Tallinn. We have had cats for quite a long time (we also have 3 sterilized no-breed cats). As for sokokes, we believe that as playful a sokoke is, that cat would love to have another cat at home – sokoke or not – to play with.
News about sokoke kittens You may find clicking on the tab: Kittens. Please feel free to contact us sokoke@sokoke.eu with any questions about that wonderful breed and our cats. Thank You for visiting our homepage!
