When settlers sailed from Europe to North America, they carried cats on board (ships' cats) to protect the stores from mice[REF]{-for instance, the cats that came over on the Mayflower with the Pilgrims to hunt rats on the ship and in the colony [REF].
The American Shorthair is a pedigreed cat breed, with a strict conformation standard, as set by cat fanciers of the breed and the North American cat fancier associations such as The International Cat Association (TICA)[REF] and the Cat Fanciers Association (CFA) [REF].