Hairlessness is a trait which has occurred in several places at different times. Hairless cats have been reported from Latin America in 1830. There are reports of this mutation occurring in France, Austria, the Czech Republic, England, Australia, Canada, USA, Mexico, Morocco, Russia and Hawaii. In addition, Devon Rexes are prone to baldness due to fragility of the hair and some LaPerm cats are born hairless.

This was originally written as a pamphlet for a cat shelter which was regularly presented with cats unwanted due to "allergy". Doctors in the area were over-diagnosing cat-allergy, leading to many cats being unnecessarily relinquished. This was aimed at potential adopters. There are plenty of websites specifically about living and coping with cat-allergy.

What is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy? Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common heart disease of cats, whether they are random bred or pedigreed. It is a heart muscle disease in which the papillary muscles (the muscles in the left ventricle that anchor the mitral valve) and the walls of the left ventricle become abnormally thickened. HCM is often a progressive disease, and a proportion of affected cats develop heart failure if the muscle hypertrophy and subsequent scarring of the heart muscle significantly affects heart function. Cats with the disease may die suddenly and may develop a blood clot in the chamber above the left ventricle (i.e., the left atrium) that often then gets carried into the systemic arterial system, most commonly lodging in the terminal aorta, stopping blood flow to the rear legs.