Not many people get the opportunity to see Felis chaus in the wild. Still fewer get a chance to photograph one. There are some nice photos of Felis chaus you can find on the Web. One of the best collections of photos is referenced on our "Links" page.

Even after you've viewed a lot of photos and have read the official Chausie breed standard, you may still not have a clear image in your mind of what the ideal Chausie should look like. It takes a lot of time and studying lots of cats and photos to "get the picture," literally. :-)

Below is a sketch of the perfect Chausie that I created by studying my collection of photographs of Felis chaus. I blew up several of the best photos, until I could see all the details, if blurrily. When one photo had a foot cut off or a bush in front of a leg, I used another photo to fill in. Where one photo showed stripes or markings on a cat that I hadn't noticed before, I studied other photos to determine what really was typical and what was not. When one cat seemed to be a lot fuller or chunkier in the head than others, I considered whether the cat was a male (with stud jowls) or was a female or neuter (more representative of the breed overall). Please don't take everything literally. I used very simple shading and color techniques. It is the type (conformation) and the salient features that I have emphasized below.

When you study this sketch, you can see what an outstanding Chausie Tor was. Tor is the cat in the photo at the top of this page.

Full body sketch of Felis chaus, representing the perfect Chausie look