Last Updated on September 6, 2026 by admin
Most cats flick their tails when they are annoyed. A Turkish Van’s tail is in near-constant motion — and it usually means the cat is in a very good mood, which is most of the time.
Ask anyone who lives with one. The tail goes up like a plume the second the cat starts running, and it waves the entire length of the hallway. Guests read it as agitation and back away from the cat.
Van owners just step around them. The International Cat Association’s breed profile puts it plainly: the Van’s tail “seems to be in constant motion, even when they are in a good mood.” It is the most consistently misread thing about the breed.
The coat is a single layer, and that changes everything
The Turkish Van is semi-longhaired with no undercoat at all. One layer, with a texture usually described as cashmere, and it repels water and dirt well enough that these cats almost never need bathing.
That single coat runs on a calendar. Vans shed the long coat for a shorter, cooler one through summer, then grow tufts of fur between their toes in winter — an adaptation to the brutal temperature swings around Lake Van in eastern Turkey.
The markings have a name of their own. “Van pattern” means a chalk-white body with color restricted to the head and the tail, and the term is now borrowed to describe that same marking in other breeds. The original color was a deep auburn red.
Many Vans also carry a small colored smudge between the shoulder blades. In Turkey it is called the thumbprint of God, and it is taken as a sign the cat is blessed.
They are not tolerating the water. They are hunting for it.
This is the part non-owners refuse to believe. A Turkish Van will get into the bathtub with you. It will sit in the shower. It will learn to operate a lever faucet and then leave it running.
They also fetch, catch toys mid-air, and turn somersaults chasing them. They will climb to the highest point in any room and supervise from there.
What they will not do is sit still in your arms. Vans want to be near you constantly, room to room, but most of them dislike being picked up and held for long.
Two women, a stream, and 1955
The West found out about the swimming almost by accident. In 1955, Laura Lushington and Sonia Halliday were touring Turkey photographing places of interest when they were given two unrelated kittens, a male and a female.
They stopped near a stream to cool off in the heat. The kittens got in and started paddling around.
Lushington and Halliday took both cats back to England and began promoting them as a distinct breed. TICA granted the Turkish Van championship status in June 1979.
Living with one is a full-time arrangement
They are large and they take their time getting there — three to five years to reach full maturity, with males finishing between 10 and 20 pounds. Females land closer to 7 to 12.
They are hard on toys, so budget for replacements. They do not do well left alone for long stretches. And they will get along with the family dog, provided the dog accepts that the cat is in charge.
The misconception worth clearing up
The Turkish Van and the Van kedisi are not the same cat. The pedigreed Turkish Van you meet at a show in the United States is the van-patterned breed. The Van kedisi is the solid-white Turkish landrace from the Lake Van region, famous for having one blue eye and one amber one.
Those cats are rare enough that Turkey runs a conservation program for them. The Van Cat Research and Application Center at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University reported 120 kittens born in 2025, a 16 percent increase. Center director Abdullah Kaya said roughly 100 of them were assessed as genetically original. Fifteen had the odd eyes.
There is a catch that any owner of a white cat should know. According to the Cornell Feline Health Center, white cats with blue eyes carry the highest risk of congenital deafness. “About 80 percent of white cats with two blue eyes will start to show signs of deafness when they are about four days old as the result of cochlear degeneration,” says Dr. James Flanders, associate professor of surgery at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
It is not correctable, and it is not a reason to pass on the cat. It is a reason to keep a deaf white cat indoors and to stomp on the floor before you walk up behind it.
The tail, meanwhile, keeps moving either way.
Has your cat ever gotten in the water with you? Tell us below. 🐱