The Balinese has a graceful body that can move in unusual ways and helps it get into all kinds of places. This flexibility and ability to escape from seemingly impossible places causes many people to compare the Balinese breed to the great magician Houdini.

Since the Balinese actually began as a longhair Siamese, it is no surprise that this breed is incredibly vocal. If you have an apartment with thin walls, the chatty Balinese may actually bother your neighbors, so you may want to think about this before deciding to choose a Balinese cat.
 
Like the Siamese, the Balinese is a cat that enjoys the company of people and other cats. Because of this breed’s need for attention, it is not a good choice for people who work long hours. If you do have a time consuming job, you should consider adding a second Balinese to the household or you will have a depressed and mopey or neurotic and hyperactive cat on your hands. These cats are very intelligent and need quite a few toys and activities to keep them occupied. Luckily, the Balinese will turn anything into a toy, from a paper grocery bag to a scrap of paper.
 
The Balinese has typical Siamese colors, including seal, chocolate, blue, and lilac point. In addition, if you are not concerned about having a CFA registered cat, the Balinese breed can have red, cream, tortie, and tabby point colors. Even though the breed is considered a longhair, its coat is not extremely long and full. However, the Balinese’s tail has hair that is quite long and gives a slightly busy appearance.

This breed is one of the smaller cat breeds, weighing in at only six to eleven pounds. The Balinese has ears that are big enough to appear slightly oversized on its graceful wedge shaped head.

Since the Balinese is an extremely active cat breed, most of these cats do not have a major problem with being overweight. However, if your cat does become a little chunky, you may want to reduce his food intake and be sure he gets a bit more exercise.

Overall, the Balinese is a fairly healthy breed, perhaps because it is still occasionally out crossed with Siamese or Angora cats, which widens the gene pool and alleviates genetic health problems that are caused by frequent inbreeding.

Since the Balinese is a long haired breed, you will need to spend some time grooming your cat. However, since this breed’s coat is not very thick or long, you should be able to thoroughly comb out your cat’s coat once a week and keep it mat free. You may also want to consider accustoming your cat to having his teeth brushed, since plaque build up and tooth decay can lead to serious health problems.

If you love the personality and graceful appearance of the Siamese but you prefer longhair breeds, then the Balinese may be the perfect choice for you.

Even if you have your cats in a fenced enclosure, they can climb, they can dig, and strangers can come by and just open the gate — see the true stories in the article "What To Do If Your Pet Is Lost Or Missing" .

The stray cats we feed have dug places under our fence that they can slip through to come in and eat in safety. OK, we helped a bit by removing rocks near the gate bottoms.

One of our four indoor-only cats, Panther is also known as "Houdini Cat" because he has demonstrated expertise at getting out of our home. He can lift out screens from windows with his claws. He has appeared out of nowhere and streaked out of a sliding door that was open only briefly. In honor of these accomplishments, Panther now has a microchip implanted between his shoulders.

We have trained both Panther and Glory to wear harnesses and walk on a retractable leash (or they trained us to follow them, we’re not entirely sure . This helps them get the "outside time" they want in a safe manner, and forces us to have some exercise too.

There are several methods to identify your pet:

Collar and tags: Any vet or large pet supply store offers individualized imprinted ID tags for sale. Both metal and plastic are offered at stores; we prefer metal as it will not crack or become damaged as easily as plastic. You must imprint a way of contacting your family, should your pet be lost. The downside is that collars can tear off and with them the ID tags.

There are a number of options as to what you can have imprinted:

• Your pet’s name
• Vet’s office phone number and a unique identifying number for your family that is in their records
• Your cellular or home phone number
• If your county keeps registration numbers on pets (ususally only done for dogs), this unique number and the county agency phone number can be on the tag.

Microchip: About the size of a large grain of rice, this is injected by your vet between the shoulder blades. It has a unique number that is read by a low level radio frequency scanner (the chip only emits energy when it is being scanned, so it is considered perfectly safe for your cat’s health). The chip manufacturer (or another pet search entity chosen by the manufacturer) has a list of all microchips sold and which veterinarians (or breeders) bought them. It can be read by a hand-held scanner which animal shelters and many vets own. Once read, the unique number is traced to the vet or breeder, they are called, and the vet or breeder in turn calls you as her records show that microchip is in your cat. Microchips have quickly become the best way of positively identifying your cats, no matter how far they happen to roam; there are many happy stories out there.

Tattoo on inside of hind leg: An older method, in which your vet tattoos a family member’s social security number or AKC (American Kennel Club) number (for dogs). This is mostly useful for "proof of ownership", rather than locating you as the owner, unless your cat happens to be registered with AKC.