Non 1961, in Scotland, the pastor William Ross and his wife Mary, from the town of Tayside, both passionate cat lovers, noticed a white cat, Susie, with folded ears who lived on the nearby farm.

At the age of two, Susie gave birth to two kittens with the same ear shape. Shepherd William, intrigued and fascinated by the characteristics of these cats, wanted one.

They adopted Snooks, daughter of Susie, and from the crossing with a British Shorthair a splendid white male named Snowball was born who re-presented the characteristic curvature of the ears.

A new breed of cats was thus consolidated in the feline world that the Ross spouses registered in 1966 with the name Scottish Fold.

The adjective "Fold" in English means "Fold", and the mutation that determines the original shape of the ears was called "Folder Ear".

The selection started immediately, but unfortunately some dangerous anomalies related to the mutated gene of the ears appeared (anomalies of the tail and of the joints).

Great Britain then took the decision to block selection and registration by the GCCF in 1973. In 1971, Mary Ross sent some Fold specimens to Neil Todd, an American geneticist from Massachusetts, who continued the selection.

In order to improve joint problems he crossed Scottish Folds with British Shorthairs, Exotic Shorthairs and American Shorthairs.

Since a Fold coupled with these breeds leads to the birth of puppies that stand out for their temperament, robustness and above all good health, this technique has been adopted by promoting the breeding and diffusion of this exceptional cat.

However, not all puppies in a litter will have folded ears: some, called "Straights", will have straight ears.

These subjects are not discarded, on the contrary they are used again in the coupling with the Folds precisely because, with the exception of the ears, they have the morphological characteristics typical of the Scottish Folds.

Thanks to these crossings, the breed could once again be bred without fear, with the only precaution not to mate two Folds with each other but always with other straight-eared cats. In the years to come first the CFA then the TICA recognized the breed, achieving much success in the United States.

Today the only association that does not  recognize the Scottish, in addition to the GCCF  is the FIFE

Matings with the breeds are still authorized today: British Shorthair and American Shorthair.