There are a few mentions of the appearance of short legged cats throughout time. One well known example of these cats is from 1944 when U.K. veterinarian Dr. H. E. Williams-Jones describes four generations of short legged cats living in the wild in England. Included in this description was an 8 year old female who had lead a very healthy life. The cat's movements were similar to a ferret, and inspite of the short legs, the cat was otherwise normal. Unfortunately these cats vanished during World War II.
In 1983 music teacher Sandra Hochenedel of Rayville, Louisiana found two cats who had been cornered by a dog hiding under a pickup truck. Both cats were pregnant, one was black & one was grey. She gave away the grey cat named "Blueberry" but kept the black one, naming her "Blackberry". Both Blueberry & Blackberry were rather unique in the fact that they both had short legs on a "normal" sized body. She named these cats "Munchkins" after the little people in the movie "The Wizard of Oz".
Blackberry's litter consisted of some short legged cats like her & some normal legged cats. One kitten from this litter was sent to a friend of Sandra called Kay LaFrance, this boy was named Toulouse. Kay established her own colony of Munchkins on her Monro, Louisiana plantation. All registered Munchkins can be traced back to Blackberry & Toulouse. There have however been other sightings of cats with a similar appearance throughout the world.
