Distinct features like blue almond-shaped eyes, a triangular head shape, large ears, an elongated, slender, and muscular body, and various forms of point colouration characterise the modern-style Siamese.

A description and depiction of the Wichianmat (Siamese cat) first appears in a collection of ancient manuscripts called the Tamra Maew (The Cat-Book Poems), thought to originate from the Ayutthaya Kingdom (1351 to 1767 AD).

The Burmese army burned everything in sight and returned to Burma, taking Siamese noblemen and royal family members with them as captives.

Today in Thailand, people tell this legend as a humorous explanation of the rarity of Thai cats.

[6] In 1884, the British Consul-General in Bangkok, Edward Blencowe Gould (1847–1916),[7] brought a breeding pair of the cats, Pho and Mia, back to Britain as a gift for his sister, Lilian Jane Gould (who, married in 1895 as Lilian Jane Veley,[8] went on to co-found the Siamese Cat Club in 1901).

In 1885, Gould's UK cats Pho and Mia produced three Siamese kittens—Duen Ngai, Kalohom, and Khromata—who were shown with their parents that same year at London's Crystal Palace Show.

[9] By 1886, four Siamese cats were imported to the UK by Eva Forestier Walker (surnamed Vyvyan after 1887 marriage)[10] and her sister, Ada.

These Siamese imports were long, had rounded heads with wedge-shaped muzzles, and large ears [citation needed].

The breed has a long neck, a slender tail, and fur that is short, glossy, fine and adheres to the body with no undercoat.

The pointed pattern is a form of partial albinism, resulting from a mutation in tyrosinase, an enzyme involved in melanin production.

The mutated tyrosinase enzyme is heat-sensitive; it fails to work at normal body temperatures but becomes active in cooler (< 33 °C) areas of the skin.

[16] The heat-sensitive enzyme results in a dark colouration in the coolest parts of the cat's body, like the extremities and the face, which are cooled by the airflow through their sinuses.

Siamese kittens are cream or white at birth and develop visible points in the first few months of life in colder parts of their body.

)[citation needed] In the United Kingdom, all pointed Siamese-style cats are considered part of the Siamese breed.

[24] The optic chiasm has abnormal uncrossed wiring; many early Siamese were cross-eyed to compensate, but like the kinked tails, the crossed eyes have been seen as a fault, and due to selective breeding the trait is far less common today.

The Siamese suffers from abnormal visual projections due to the lateral geniculate body of the eye differing from normal felines.

British publisher Michael Joseph recorded his relationship with his Siamese cat in Charles: The Story of a Friendship (1943).

The 1958 film adaptation of Bell, Book and Candle features Kim Novak's Siamese cat "Pyewacket", a witch's familiar.

The Incredible Journey (1961)[34] by Sheila Burnford tells the story of three pets, including the Siamese cat "Tao", as they travel 300 miles (480 km) through the Canadian wilderness searching for their beloved masters.

The book was a modest success when first published but became widely known after 1963 when it was loosely adapted into a film of the same name by Walt Disney.

Disney also employed the same Siamese in the role of "DC" for its 1965 crime caper That Darn Cat!,[35] with The New York Times commenting "The feline that plays the informant, as the F.B.I.