Thai cat

Thai
Chocolate-point Thai
Other names	Standardised breed: Old-style Siamese Old-type Siamese Traditional Siamese Classic Siamese Wichian Mat Landrace: whichianmat
Common nicknames	Applehead
Origin	Thailand (originally); Europe and North America (redevelopment)
	Western Siamese, backcrossed with indigenous whichianmat
Breed standards
FIFe	standard
TICA	standard
WCF	standard
FFE	standard
Domestic cat (Felis catus)

The Thai cat (Thai: วิเชียรมาศ,  [wí.tɕʰīan.mâːt], rtgs: wichianmat, meaning 'moon diamond') is a newly renamed but old cat breed, related to but distinct from the Western, modern Siamese cat. This natural breed is descended from the landrace of wichianmat cats of Thailand, and as a standardised breed has also been variously called the Old-style, Old-type, Traditional, or Classic Siamese; the Whichian Mat (anglicised from the Thai name); and the Applehead, a nickname that originated as a pejorative used by breeders of the modern-style Siamese. According to The International Cat Association: "The Thai is the breed dedicated to preserving the native pointed cat of Thailand in as close to its original form as possible."

The Thai breed (and native wichianmat specimens) have a much more customary cat appearance, with rounder eyes, face and body, and normal-sized ears, compared to the "new-style" Siamese breed, which is remarkably almond-eyed, thin-faced, thin-bodied, and large-eared, having little in common with the traditional variety other than point colouration.

Cats that were imported from Siam (today, Thailand) to Western countries in the 19th and early 20th century were broader in features than the modern Western Siamese. While the Thai, known in Thailand as the whichianmat (among other, non-standardised spellings, e.g. wichien-maat), has common ancestry with the Western Siamese, generations of separate breeding led to the development of two distinct breeds, which began to bifurcate in the 1950s, with more extreme features dominating the cat show circuit, and thus becoming the dominant variety of Siamese in the West. Starting in the 1980s, various breed clubs in both North America and Europe appeared that were dedicated to preserving the type that represents the early 20th-century Siamese, comparable to those still found in Thailand catteries, and which were shown again beginning in 1993 in Europe. The World Cat Federation (WCF) recognised the old-style as separate breed, Thai, with full championship competitive status, in 1990. The rename was not universally accepted; in 2000, the independent Old-Style Siamese Club (OSSC) formed in the UK to preserve and promote the breed as such.