Devon Rex

Devon, England is the ancestral home of the Devon Rex. In 1960, a feral tom with a curly coat bred with the pet of a Miss Beryl Cox and one of the resulting kittens (Kirlee) had a coat just like his sire's. Aware of Kalli(the first Cornish Rex) and the work to preserve that new gene, she wrote to Brian Sterling-Webb thinking to contribute to the program. It turned out that the gene creating Kirlee's coat was different to the one producing Kalli's. While Cornish had whiskers that were bent and curled, the Devon had missing or stubby whiskers. Kirlee had tight curls but not as uniform as those of Kalli. Breeders started developing a program to conserve the gene discovered in Devon too. The gene discovered in Cornwall was designated Gene 1 and that discovered in Devon Gene 2.