How did it happen that the wild Kadzonzo from the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest in East Kenya travelled from Africa to Denmark to be e a pet and a recognised cat breed called Sokoke ?

The Sokoke cat originates from the Sokoke-Arabuko Forest , the largest strecth of indigenous coastal forest ramianing in East Africa. The forest comprises an ecosystem of great diversity containing many rare species. Luckily the forest is now part of the Forest Department and Kenya Wildlife Service.

The Giriama tribe call this cat "Kadzonzo" which means "come here sweet one". The Giriama tribe has lived around the forest for hundreds of years, and the tribal elders can describe the Kadzonzo and differentiate it from the three wild genera, as well as the domestic breeds.

Not much was known about the Sokoke cat before the Kenyan wild life artist Jeni Slater in 1978 found a litter of kittens in her coconut plantation. Jeni Slater, an experienced horsebreeder, found the kittens so special that she brought them home as pets. Their pattern "blotched tabby" does not otherwise exist in East Africa, and their body type is tall and slender, whereas the Kenyan housecats are of the "cobby" type and with a much thicker coat.

There is a number of rare species that only exists in the Sokoke Forest, but the unusual feral cat discovered by Jeni Slater caused little or no local interest.

This history of the Kadzonzo/Sokoke cat is paramount. To quote Jeni Slater: "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".

As mentioned before Jeni Slater received little local interest for her find. It was a piece of good luck for the survival of the Kadzonzo/Sokoke cat that Jeni invited a good friend Gloria Moeldrup from Denmark to see the cats, and she - like Jeni - recognized a unique makeup, pattern and behaviour of the cat. In 1984 Jeni expressed fear that the breed might not survive in Kenya. Gloria Moeldrup then decided to move a breeding pair "Jenny" and "Mzuri" to Denmark, where in 1984, Kadzonzo/Sokoke cats were shown for the first time, and in 1985 they had their first litter.

From then on came the long journey to recognition. In 1990 Gloria Moeldrup imported three more cats from Watamu to strengthen the breeding stock.
In November 1992 the judges committee of FIFe looked at 19 Kadzonzos representing five generations. They were officially recognized as a new breed in 1993 with the name "Sokoke".
There are only about 50 fertile Sokoke cats in the world, besides in Denmark there are some in Norway, Finland, Italy and Germany and Canada.

The Kadzonzo has lived and developed in the Arabuko-Sokoke forest without human interference until 1978. The Sokoke has since its arrival in Denmark never been outbred !

More information e.g about breeders can be found on the homepage of the International Sokoke Society.