Cats
specimens; but alas the class was empty! We have seen a stuffed specimen in a Continental
museum, which was a half long-haired cat, the ears being pendent down the sides of the head
instead of erect; but do not attach much value to this."
In 1926, Brooke wrote that "for donkey's years" Continental cat shows had offered prizes for
the Drop-eared Chinese Cat. On each occasion, the cat failed to materialise and Brooke
considered it to be mythical. Other writers suggested it was the result of haematomas causing
the ears to fold or crumple. Brooke noted that although no-one ever saw the cat itself, one
always met "someone who knows someone whose friends has often seen them". He had been
assured by a Chinese gentleman he had met only once that "he knew them well". HC Brooke,
and other fanciers, made enquiries of the Chinese Embassy, of Hagenbeck's (a major
Hamburg animal dealer at the time) and of a "certain well known author, who has lived for
annaabi.ee 
