The SOKOKE cats gets its name from Arabuko Sokoke Forest District near Watamu, Kenya, this is where they were first "discovered" by Europeans. In Swahili the cats are called Kadzonzo meaning "looks like tree bark" a good description of the tabby pattern.  The cats have naturally developed a unique look and this is now being preserved by human intervention.

The Sokokes are domestic cats that first came to European notice in 1978 when Jeni Slater found a litter of kittens in her coconut plantation in Kenya.

"my gardener came to me one morning in 1978 and reported some strange kittens, with a mother, born in a hollow under a tree in my garden. I went to investigate, and saw, these huge eyes and big ears, and long tail erect and a smallish head with beautiful body markings. I knew immediately that this was something unusual and I therefore took a pair from the litter. With the help of the house staff I hand reared them. I had much experience in hand rearing orphaned animals during my farming days in Molo Kenya".
 

Jeni kept the kittens as pets, as they grew they remained very different from the other Kenyan moggies. The old lines of Sokoke occasionaly produce "snow" sokoke which shows there is at least some siamese blood in the history.

Jeni invited Gloria Moeldrup, a Danish friend, to see the cats.  She also fell in love with them  and decided to take a pair to Europe.  Gloria later imported another 3 cats. Gloria Moeldrup passed away February 1997

In 1984, Sokoke cats where shown for the first time in Copenhagen. In 1985 Gloria's pair (Jenny and Mzuri) had their first litter.  In November 1992 FIFe examined nineteen Sokoke Cats representing five generations. The SOKOKE was fully recognised as a breed of domestic cat by FIFe in 1993, and has recently gained registration status with TICA.

The breed slowly spread in mainland Europe and there are now even a few cats in UK, USA and Canada.  In 2001 it was discovered that Jeannie Knockers had a colony of breeding Sokoke in Kenya.  The cats were examined by Fife judges in Europe and were declared to be characteristic of the breed. In 2002 two of these new cats, Genet and Mara, were taken to Sweden where they have provided much needed new blood to the breed. 

We are working to get the sokoke recognised as a provisional new breed in TICA, this will hopefully happen in early 2007.