Napoleon
The Napoleon, now usually registered as the Minuet, crosses the Munchkin with Persian and Exotic Shorthair lines.
It was created in the United States in the 1990s by Joe Smith, a basset hound breeder, and was renamed after objections to the original name.
It weighs 2.5 to 4 kilograms, with the round face, large eyes and dense coat of the Persian side on the shortened legs of the Munchkin. Coats are short or long. The temperament is generally the Persian's — placid, affectionate and undemanding. The health picture is the sum of both sides, and the Persian contribution is the more significant of the two.
- Origin
- United States, 1990s, from Munchkin and Persian lines
- Size
- 2.5–4 kg
- Lifespan
- 12–15 years
- Coat
- Short or long, dense, in most colours
- Build
- Round Persian face on shortened legs
- Health
- Polycystic kidney disease, HCM, plus munchkin concerns
Related: Exotic shorthair · Munchkin · Persian
2 napoleon photos, newest first
Living with a napoleon
Ask for the PKD DNA test. Polycystic kidney disease is common in Persian lines, causes kidney failure in middle age, and has had a definitive genetic test for two decades — a breeder not testing for it has no excuse.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy also runs in these lines and needs cardiac scanning rather than a DNA test.
If the face is markedly flattened, expect the flat-faced problems: tear staining from blocked ducts, noisy breathing, heat sensitivity and crowded teeth. Moderate-faced individuals avoid most of it, so look at the actual cat.
Short legs mean low-sided trays, steps to perches, and reachable food and water.
Longhaired individuals need daily grooming; the dense Persian-type coat mats close to the skin.
General guidance, not veterinary advice. Individual cats vary, and anything about a specific animal is a question for a vet who has seen it.
Worth reading alongside this
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- What a bird breathes, and what kills it
- The kitchen scale that catches illness early
- Laminitis, and the grass that causes it
- What a flat face costs
- The health tests to ask a breeder for
- Coats, and what each type actually needs
- Dental disease, and why bad breath is not normal
- Heatstroke, and the first ten minutes
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