The ideal Somali is a colourful cat with a distinctly ticked coat, medium in size and regal in appearance. The Somali is lithe, hard and muscular, showing a lively interest in all surroundings, well balanced temperamentally and physically, with all elements of the cat in proportion.
Coat texture is very soft to the touch, extremely fine and double coated with at least two or three bands of ticking on each hair. The coat is of medium length, except over the shoulders, where a shorter length is permitted. Preference is given to those cats with well developed ruff and breeches giving a full coated appearance to the cat.
