The first known Savannah was born in the 1980’s when Judee Frank achieved a mating between a Serval and a domestic cat. The resulting F1 female cat was named Savannah. The breed itself is named after the Savannahs (grasslands) of Africa where the Serval originate and the first kitten called Savannah. Patrick Kelly was very interested in Savannah and purchased one of her kittens. He thought that this was a new breed, very worthy of developing and as such he began to research ways to get the breed accepted by an official cat registry. Once Patrick had all the information needed he began to approach several breeders who owned Servals to see if wanted to develop the breed with him. Joyce Sroufe joined him and they wrote the original breed standard together and presented this to TICA. Joyce became a very successful Savannah breeder and was the first to breed down to lower generations and produce fertile males. Her first litter was registered in 1994. A1 Savannahs which was formally known as New Horizons Bengals was founded by Joyce Sroufe. Martin and Kathrin are now the owners of A1 Savannahs and they continue to produce amazing cats.