An ordinary house cat that looks like a little bobcat, with a short tail, spots and sometimes extra toes, and the heart of a dog.
The Pixiebob comes from Washington State in America. In the mid-1980s Carol Ann Brewer bred spotted farm cats with short tails there, which looked like the wild bobcats in the woods. For a long time people said a real bobcat was in the family, but DNA tests found nothing: it is an ordinary house cat with a wild look. It is big, sturdy and very loyal. Many Pixiebobs fetch and walk on a harness, just like a dog.
Bonds closely with its family and often follows you around like a dog.
Always wants to be near you. Whether it also settles on your lap depends on the cat.
Loves to play, and many Pixiebobs neatly bring a toy back.
Active and joins in with everything, but calm and relaxed indoors.
Does not meow much. It prefers to talk with chirps and chattering sounds.
Clever and easily learns tricks, fetching and walking on a harness.
Usually friendly with visitors, though little is known about this.
Good with children who are gentle with it, and sturdy enough to play with.
Usually gets on with a calm dog that is used to cats.
Usually gets on well with other cats in the house.
Can manage a working day alone, but gets lonely if it is often left for long.
Usually settles well indoors if it can climb and play. A walk on a harness is a nice extra.
A Pixiebob is a cross between a wild bobcat and a house cat.
No. In the 1990s its DNA was compared with the bobcat's, and no trace of the bobcat was found. Later genetic studies also see an ordinary house cat. The breed's founder herself called the bobcat story a legend she believed but could not prove.
A Pixiebob is part wild, just like a Bengal or a Savannah.
No. It looks wild, but it is a house cat through and through. For the law, pedigrees and travel it counts as an ordinary cat, with no rules for wild crosses.
The Pixiebob is the only breed with extra toes.
No. Extra toes also turn up in Maine Coons and in lots of ordinary house cats. But the Pixiebob is the only breed that America's TICA lets into the show ring with them, with up to seven toes per foot.
The Pixiebob got its name from Pixie, a female kitten born in 1986. Her parents were a big male with a short tail and a spotted female from next door. Locals said a wild bobcat was in the family, and the story stuck for a long time. But DNA tests found no trace of the bobcat, and the registries see the Pixiebob as an ordinary house cat. The short tail comes from a gene the Manx also has. FIFe and America's CFA do not recognise the breed.
Near Mount Baker in Washington, Carol Ann Brewer buys a spotted male kitten with a short tail and extra toes.
She takes in a big male called Keba. He has kittens with a spotted cat from next door, and Pixie is one of them.
Brewer starts breeding with Pixie and looks for more short-tailed cats like her.
Brewer writes the first breed standard: what a Pixiebob should look like.
Brewer asks America's TICA to recognise the breed.
Pixiebobs may take part in TICA shows, still without titles.
DNA tests compare the Pixiebob with the bobcat and other wild cats. No relationship shows up.
TICA moves the Pixiebob a step further: it becomes a recognised new breed in progress.
TICA gives the Pixiebob championship status: from 1 May it can win titles.
Someone in America seeks a patent on a cat breed 'with bobcat blood'. The court turns it down, partly because of old news stories about the Pixiebob.
The WCF publishes its current standard for the shorthaired Pixiebob.
A sturdy, muscular cat with heavy bones, long legs and a deep chest. Its back slopes up slightly towards the hips, and a loose flap of skin hangs under its belly. With its short tail and spots it looks like a little bobcat.
The same cat with a semi-long, silky coat of up to 5 centimetres, with a longer ruff, belly and breeches.
Recognition: TICA judges it together with the shorthaired Pixiebob. America's ACFA and France's LOOF recognise it too; the WCF standard covers only the shorthair.
Cat registries write colours as an EMS code. The letter is the colour (n black, a blue, d red, f tortie), s means silver or smoke, y golden, and the numbers tell you about white (01–09), shading (11, 12), the tabby pattern (22–25) or colourpoint (33).
Brown spotted tabby(n 24)The Pixiebob comes in one colour only: brown with spots, from tawny to reddish brown, on a mouse-grey base. Broken stripes are part of that pattern. A small white spot on the chest is fine at TICA, but a fault at WCF and LOOF. In summer the coat is shorter and the spots show more.
TICA, WCF and LOOF give no awards to a Pixiebob in any other colour or pattern. Such a cat is not a pedigree show cat and may point to a cross with another breed.
At TICA a Pixiebob may enter a show with extra toes, up to seven toes on one foot.
The breed is named after Pixie, a female kitten born in April 1986 who stayed with the founder.
Pixiebobs talk in chirps and chatters, and many of them hardly ever meow.
A Pixiebob grows slowly: it keeps building bone and muscle for three to four years.
In summer its coat is shorter and the spots show better; in winter it grows thicker and softer in pattern.
No study has measured it. Most sources say about 13 to 15 years. Take it as a rough guide.
The heart wall grows too thick, so the heart pumps less well. Many cats show nothing for years; it cannot be cured, but medicine helps. In the Pixiebob it has been seen a few times, sometimes in lines with Maine Coon or Bengal in them.
How it is found: A heart scan by a vet, every year for breeding cats. There is no DNA test for this breed.
The short tail comes from a gene the Manx also has; every Pixiebob tested carried it. One copy gives a short tail. In the Manx a kitten with two copies does not survive. Whether that is the same in the Pixiebob, or whether it causes spine problems, is not known.
How it is found: A DNA test shows which tail genes a cat carries.
In a male kitten one or both testicles do not come down properly, usually noticed at about four months. It turns up now and then in the Pixiebob. The vet removes them when the cat is neutered, so they cause no trouble later.
How it is found: The vet feels for it at the kitten check-up. Breeders do not breed from such a male.
Pixiebobs put on weight easily. Extra weight strains the joints and the heart.
How it is found: No test. Weigh your cat now and then, measure its food and play together every day.
Brush a shorthaired Pixiebob every week, a longhaired one a few times a week. Clean the ears, clip the claws monthly and brush the teeth.
Play together every day, puzzles for its clever head and places to climb. Above all it wants company.
Many Pixiebobs easily learn to walk on a harness. That way an indoor cat can still go outside safely.
Good food that suits its age. It puts on weight easily, so measure the portions.
A Pixiebob is not hypoallergenic: no cat breed is free of the allergen. If you are allergic, spend some time with a Pixiebob first.
Checked on 23 October 2026
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