1. Who is WCF?
The World Cat Federation was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Essen, Germany, with more than 370 affiliated cat clubs worldwide. It is one of the larger international cat organisations and is usually mentioned alongside CFA, FIFe and TICA. Its work covers breed standards, training and certifying judges, organising shows, and internationally registering the cattery names of breeders belonging to member clubs.
One point matters a great deal: WCF is not itself a company that issues documents. It is structured as a federation of clubs — a cattery registers through the member club it belongs to, and that club issues the certificate. This structure determines how verification works, as explained below.
2. What belongs on the certificate
A usable WCF pedigree normally contains:
The cat's full registered name, including the cattery name prefix — the most direct way to identify origin within the WCF system. The registration number. The EMS breed code, a short string that encodes breed, colour and pattern together. Sex and date of birth. At least three generations of ancestors, each with its registered name and certificate number; many documents go to five generations. The breeder's and owner's names. The issuing club's name, the date of issue, and the signature or stamp of the issuing officer.
Run four self-checks when you receive it: does the registered name match the cat you are buying? Does the cattery prefix match the cattery you are dealing with? Is the date of issue earlier than the cat's birth date — the most common low-level mistake? And does the colour encoded in the EMS code correspond to what the cat actually looks like?
3. Verifying it: there is no global online database
This needs to be said plainly. WCF's pedigree registration is not centralised; lineage records are maintained by individual member clubs, and WCF does not run a public database where anyone can type in a number. Third-party sites claiming "enter your number to verify" are mostly unreliable.
Four verification routes do work:
Contact the issuing club directly. The certificate names it. Use the club's published contact details, send the registration number along with the cat's full registered name, and ask for confirmation. This is the only route with any real standing, and replies typically take days to weeks.
Cross-check ancestors beyond three generations. If the cattery can supply a fuller five-generation pedigree, examine whether names and numbers in the middle generations are internally consistent. Forgeries most often break at the join between one generation and the next — names line up while numbers belong to a different line altogether.
Reverse-look-up the cattery prefix. WCF registers cattery names internationally for breeders in member clubs, so the prefix on the certificate can be checked against publicly listed cattery names in that system to confirm it exists.
Tie it to the parents. The sire's and dam's registered names on a genuine certificate should correspond to the certificates of the two breeding cats you were shown. If they do not, either the documented line was swapped somewhere, or the certificate simply belongs to a different cat.
4. Papers are not a health guarantee
A pedigree tells you who the ancestors were, not whether the cat is healthy. It covers nothing about genetic screening, vaccination status, or whether an echocardiogram was ever performed. Ask for three separate sets of documents: pedigree certificate, genetic test reports, and vaccination and deworming records — and chase down whichever is missing.
Pay attention to the nature of the transfer as well. Whose name appears in the owner field, and whether breeding rights convey, determines whether you can show the cat or breed from it later. A photocopy of a pedigree without accompanying transfer paperwork is not sufficient under most associations' procedures.
5. About our cattery
PishPish Cattery is a WCF-registered Maine Coon breeder based in Tuoyibaoledi Town, Shaya County, Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang. All eight of our breeding cats — our stud Nicolas Volkov Praid and females LiLi, Sofiye, PALMIRA, Timi, Klara and Luna — have traceable pedigrees. If you want a specific document checked, we will tell you which club issued it and support a written confirmation. Please ask for this in person; there is no need to be polite about it.
