Oriental shorthair- Cats are identical to Siamese cats apart from the colour of their coat, which is unicoloured and the colour of their eyes, which are of a clear green.
They have a long slim body, long legs, very fine short hair , a wedge-shaped head with big ears and almond-shaped eyes.
As told above, the eyes are meant to be green, but you sometimes can find white Oriental Shorthair Cats with two different coloured eyes (odd- eyed) , not to be mixed up with the Foreign White with her deep blue eyes, she is genetically a Siamese Cat who has "hidden" her points.

History

In the Kingdom of siam you found not only cats with masks, but unicoloured cats in black, blue, brown, white bi- or particolour. With the first Siamese Cats unicoloured cats came over to Europe, but the main interest belonged to the cats with mask, officially named "Siamese" in 1920.

Around 1950 breeders remembered the unicoloured variety of the oriental type. They tried to breed them again, mixing them with slim Shorthair Cats of different breeds, for example the Russian Blue. By holding on to Siamese Cats the "oriental" character was kept and established.

Todays Oriental Shorthairs you can`t compare with those of the 50th and 60th, but the conception behind the breeding convinces even today:
a cat with the character and look of a Siamese Cat in a solid coat.

With the expansion of the colours - the black "Ebony", the different browns in "Havanna", "Cinnamon" and "Fawn" an expansion of the patterns went along. Nowadays you find beside the classic unicoloured cat Oriental Shorthairs in spotted, ticked, tipped and mackerel.
The final ackknoledgement of the oriental Shorthair as an own breed came in the early 70th. As <Siamese and oriental Shorthair have nearly the same standard they often are mated with each other. So you can find Siamese and Oriental Shorthair in one nest.