Early origins Longhaired blue cats resembling the Russian Blue were first exhibited at the first Cat shows held at
the Crystal Palace in the UK in 1871, but disappeared from the spotlight in the early twentieth century as the
cat fancy contracted.
Development in the US The modern Nebelung was developed in the 1980s by Cora Cobb of
Nebelheim Cattery in the US. The foundation cats were
Siegfried (1984) and
Brunhilde (1985), both longhaired blue kittens born to a black
domestic shorthair,
Elsa, and a blue
domestic longhair male. Cobb, advised by TICA geneticist Dr Solveig Pflueger, drafted a standard based on the Russian Blue but with semi-long hair, naming the new breed
Nebelung ("creature of the mist"; see
Nibelung). Russian Blue breeders in TICA objected, and the standard was revised to describe a new distinct breed, achieving new breed status in TICA in 1987 and full championship in 1997.
Russian and European lines In the early 1990s, longhaired kittens began to appear in Russia from Russian Blue parents, confirming the presence of the recessive longhair gene in the population. In 1993 a Dutch breeder, Letty van den Broeck, imported a Russian Blue male,
Timofeus, from a Russian cattery. He proved to be semi-longhaired and became the first known longhaired Russian Blue stud in Western Europe. He demonstrated that the longhair gene was naturally present in the Russian Blue breed. == Registration and popularity ==