The Thai/Old-style Siamese and the modern Western Siamese share a commonality of distant relatives, the point coloration gene and the outgoing, people-loving, vocal personality made famous in the West by the early Siamese imports but they have distinct appearances. Thai bloodlines are a mix of Siamese and/or imported wichien-maat.[1]
The primary features of the Thai are that it is a point-colored ("pointed") cat of foreign body type (more elongated than the average Western domestic cat, but less so than the modern Western Siamese or Oriental, which are classified as oriental type); has a modified wedge shaped head, a profile with a long flat forehead and no sharp nose break or stop; has a short, flat-lying single coat and does not carry the longhair gene; has a registered pedigree dating back to the early Siamese with no Western domestic short hair ancestors or import documentation from Thailand. The premise of the Thai cat is to help preserve the old look, yet provide a future that focuses on healthy diversified lines and the authenticity and personality of the Old-style Siamese.