This is a dumb question (fur length question)

How did different fur lengths come about? If the long fur was a selected trait, did cat breeds with long fur simply mix with other cats, resulting in a number of non-pedigreed cats with long fur? Or did the longer fur just happen naturally?

Sorry this is a dumb question, but I didn't know longhaired cats existed until about 6 years ago. *blush*

All of the "breeds" occured in nature, long hair also had to occur. I'm sure it just evolved over time with cats adapting to various climates, and is now a genetic trait that is passed along. I don't know, however, if it is dominant or recessive gene.

It's a cultural condition, the climate of origin. For instance in Egypt cats were short haired. The pure breeds are from extension of these and cross/inbreeding for specific physical traits.

In the simplest sense, its a recessive/dominant thing. Short hair is the dominant trait (denoted L) and long hair is recessive (l) So a cat who is LL or Ll will have short hair, and only a ll cat will have long hair. That also means that two long hair cats will only have long-haired offspring, while short haired cat has the potential to have long-haired babies.

In actuality, there are other genes which contribute to hair length - otherwise all long-haired cats would have hair the same length, etc. So other genes can make hair longer or shorter depending on what combinations of the genes they have.