In 1961,in the Tayside region of Scotland, a litter of kittens was born. The McCrae's named the kitten Susie and it had funny little "lop" ears. William Ross who was a shepherd who lived next door, noticed the cat and told his wife Mary. Mary decides that she has to have one of these cats and finally two years later gets Snooks. They breed Snooks to a red tabby domestic cat and she produces a white folded ear male who they call Snowball. They then acquired a white British Shorthair that they called Lady May. These two are bred and so the beginning of a breeding program for the folds. In the meantime, the Rosses named their cattery Densila. They continued to breed and by 1966 were showing occasionally. They met up with an English breeder named Pat Turner who continued the breeding and determined that it was necessary to breed a fold ear to a straight ear in order to avoid genetic abnormalities.

In 1970, a few cats were sent to Dr. Neil Todd in Newtonville, Ma. where Dr Todd was a geneticist. He worked for a while with the breed and then lost interest. A cat was then sent to Salle Peters where she bred Densila Hester to an Ex. Sh Ch. Leprechaun's Hurricane of Wyola. This produced Wyola's Jed Callant, a blue male who was the first Scottish Fold to be registered in CFA in the US. In 1974, the stud book was open for foundation cats which could include cats of unknown origin as well as any other shorthair breeds. This continued until January of 1976. There was talk even at that time of making the breed a dual breed to include both shorthair and longhair as Persians had been used as well as Exotics and British Shorthairs, both of which had Persians behind them. Ironically Longhairs are now accepted in most all of the Associations.

About the same time as Salle Peters was beginning, so was Karen Votava along with Briory Sivewright and Bobbie Graham. Many American Shorthairs were used in the breeding programs. Many lovely cats have shown throughout the years in CFA to become Grand Champions ant stand behind most of the lines that are being used today by breeders across the nation and world.

By 1978-9 they were being shown in CFA for championship status. The other organizations have accepted them since then and in fact now are accepted for Ch status in both Longhair and Shorthair. Cat Fanciers Federation, where I am an Allbreed Judge accepts them in all colors and patterns including the Pointed varieties. The Scottish Fold and Longhair Fold (Highland Fold in some organizations) has grown in popularity. Their sweet surprised expression and owl like look and Purring Purrsonality has captured the hearts of many a cat lover since 1961.

(Information for this brief has been obtained from articles in the CFA yearbooks, newsletters and other publications.)