The European Burmese originated from Wong Mau, the first Burmese to be introduced to the western world in 1930. As Wong Mau was the only example of her type she had to be mated to another breed of similar type. The obvious choice then was the Siamese. Resulting litters revealed that Wong Mau herself carried a pointed gene as kittens in her litters were both solid and pointed in color. The solids were selected for further propagation of the breed. From the United States the breed spread east to the United Kingdom where the same lack of breeding stock led again to the introduction of Siamese. From then on the breed followed different courses of development until today we have two very different looking cats with two different standards both sharing a common ancestry. The most obvious difference is the array of colors displayed by the European Burmese which are as many as ten. Introduction of the red gene is responsible for the additional colors. This gene was introduced both deliberately and by accident. In the U.K. Siamese come in many colors including red points, so the introduction of this gene to the existing four colors (brown, chocolate, blue and lilac) produced the colors red, cream, brown-tortie, chocolate-tortie, blue-tortie and lilac-tortie. The European Burmese competes in the Championship category. The European Burmese is an elegant cat which is medium sized with good bone structure, excellent muscular development, expressive eyes and a sweet expression. Because the European Burmese are highly intelligent, affectionate and extremely loyal, they make outstanding pets. Ideally, they would prefer the company of other animals; however, if circumstances make it impossible they will live quite happily as the sole pet. They love people and make wonderful companions as pets.