Even though my breed comes from the US, our name is all German! Nebel is the German word for “fog” or “mist,” and we are nicknamed “creature of the mist” because of our blue-grey color and mysterious aura. Our name also comes from a medieval Germanic epic poem calledthe Nibelungenlied, which was later adapted into an opera by German composer Richard Wagner. Siegfried and Brunhilde – the father and mother of my breed – were named after characters from this famous German epic. The Nebelung breed name has many layers, just like me!

We Nebelungs are a very new breed. In the early 1980s, my earliest ancestors were born in the United States. The first, born in 1984, was a male kitten named Siegfried. Siegfried’s mother, Elsa, was a black Domestic Shorthair owned by a human named Cora Cobb, and his father was a longhaired cat that resembled a Russian Blue. Siegfried was the only longhaired blue kitten in the litter. In 1985, Elsa had another litter and produced one more longhaired blue kitten, a female that Cora Cobb named Brunhilde. Cobb fell in love with the unique look of these two special kittens, which had the silvery blue coloring of a Russian Blue and the silky medium-length coat of the domestic. Siegfried and Brunhilde produced a litter in 1986 and the Nebelung breed was born! Cobb wanted to start a breeding program and get the Nebelung officially recognized as a separate breed, not just as longhaired Russian Blue cats. In 1987, with the help of a geneticist named Dr. Solveig Pflueger, she applied for new breed status with The International Cat Association. She worked hard on her breeding program over the next ten years and our strict breed standard was based on a type of longhaired blue cat that had been imported from Russia to Europe in the early 19th century. In 1997, TICA officially recognized the Nebelung as our own breed. We were also recognized by other major world cat registries, including the World Cat Federation and the American Cat Fanciers Association (not to be confused with the Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA), who still does not recognize us). Today, we are still an incredibly rare breed and it can be hard for humans to get their hands on one of us, but those lucky enough to bring a Nebelung into their home soon learn why we are such a rare prize.