Wegies are legendary, but not for just our sweet personalities and good looks. According to Norse mythology, we were the chosen breed of Freya, goddess of love and fertility. Myths say that Thor gave two Wegie kitties to Freya as a gift. They grew up so big and strong they could pull Freya’s chariot! Her cats were more than just workers – they were companions, too. Just like me, Freya’s cats loved to play with her and take naps at her feet. They also loved to climb just like I do, but her cats could climb mountains – a cat tree is good enough for me!

As you might expect, we Norwegian Forest Cats come from Norway (where we’re known as skogkatt, which means “forest cat” in Norwegian). We’re a very old breed – there are even tales of my earliest ancestors in Norse mythology! But not all humans agree on our origin. Some humans believe my earliest ancestors were a mix between domestic shorthair cats that the Vikings brought from England and longhaired cats brought by the Crusaders. Other humans think that we’re related to Siberians and Turkish Angoras. The earliest Wegies were very helpful to their humans, the Vikings and Scandinavian farmers. Because we are super good mousers, we helped our humans get rid of pesky critters on their ships and in their barns and fields. Some humans believe that the first Norwegian Forest Cats came to North America as mousers on the Viking ships that landed in Newfoundland the 10th century, and that these Wegies were bred with domestic cats to create my cousin, the Maine Coon! The first organization dedicated to us, the Norwegian Forest Cat Club, was formed in Oslo, Norway in 1938. These Wegie lovers wanted to preserve our breed, but during World War II we came close to becoming extinct because my ancestors were breeding with domestic cats. Almost no purebred Wegies were left but the nice humans of the Norwegian Forest Cat Club came to our rescue and started a breeding program to save us. We were so beloved that in the 1950s, King Olaf declared us the official cat of Norway! We were always Norway’s top cat but we hit the scene in the rest of Europe when Carl-Fredrik Nordane took a fancy to us and got us registered with the Fédération Internationale Féline in the 1970s. We finally caught on in America and were recognized by the Cat Fanciers Association in 1994.