The Somali cat has a coat of medium length compared to the shorthair Abyssinian cat. The breed is probably a chance product of the time after the 2nd world war.
It was bred for the first time straight in the 1960s in the USA.
Probably the history of the Somali began with Mrs. Mew, a cat who was given to the English breeder Janet Robertson as a young animal. Its mother was a ship cat about whom is only known that she owned the phenotype of the Abyssinians, just as Mrs. Mew’s kitten Roverdale Purrkins.
After their great-grandchild Raby Chuffa of Selene had been sold to the USA, long-haired kittens appeared over and over again among his descendants. At first these long haired animals were sorted out from the breeding. However, in the 60s of the last century the breeder Evelyn Mague (Cattery Lynn Lee) took care of the “long-haired Abyssinians” and found comrade-in-arms. They began the specific breeding of the cat which should become the today's Somali. As the Abyssinian's breeders struggled in the beginning vehemently against the long-haired animals, the race was named after the neighboring country of Abyssinian (today's Ethiopia) Somali to finish the quarrel. The Abyssinian breed comes most probably originally from south east Asia.