The Don Sphynx is a Russian breed of hairless cat, also called Don Hairless, Russian Hairless, Don Bald Cat,  Donskoy and Donsky Sphynx. It is a result of a mutation, the first hairless cat (a femaly) being found in 1987, in the city of Rostov-na-Donu, by Elena Kovaleva, who first thought that the animal suffered from a disease that caused the loss of hair. The female cat was called Varvara and later gave birth to more hairless kittens. One of them, which became the foundation stock of the breed, was given to the famous Russian cat breeder Irina Nemikina. She decided to start a breeding programme. At first nobody believed that the Don Sphynx’s nakedness was natural. Then Irina Nemikina decided to offer Don Sphynx kittens to all Russian cat fanciers whenever she had the opportunity to do so and with very good results. The new owners soon discovered the magic appealing of the new breed which rapidly grew in popularity. This breed is closely related to the Peterbald and has a lot in common with Sphynx cats originating in Canada but it is genetically unrelated with them. The gene responsible for nakedness in the Canadian Sphynx is recessive, while it is a dominant gene that causes the Don Sphynx to be naked. This means that it takes only one naked parent to have naked kittens. The Don Sphynx is not very famous worldwide  but is getting more and more popular in Russia.

The Don Sphynx are sturdy, medium-sized cats with strong boning and wrinkled skin which is  soft, velvety and hot to the touch. This breed expresses a clear sexual dimorphism. The body is of medium length, compact, Sturdy muscular, with a broad rump, witwide croup and a Deep scrotum line. The legs are medium-long, straight with rounded paws and elongated toes with webs that allow the animal  to seize things with the toes.The head, set on a medium in length, rounded and well-muscled neck, is short to medium long. The muzzle is slightly rounded and not long, with finely outlined cheekbones, a well-developed chin and a straight, medium length nose with a slight break. The forehead is flat, with many vertical wrinkles spreading in horizontal lines above the eyes. The eye-balls are marked. The medium-sized, almond-shaped eyes are deep and set up slantwise. There is no relationship between eye colour and coat colour. The ears are large, set wide and high on the head, slightly bent forward, wide at the base with rounded tips.The tail is long, straight, strong and flexible and tapering to the tip. The skin is completely naked, elastic and very wrinkled on the head, neck, under the legs and in the groin. With young cats the muzzle may be covered with short, thin fur, slightly longer on cheeks and at the ears base, "ear muff". In winter slight furnishing of the whole body possible. Don Hairless come in a large variety of colours all of them acceptable.

Don Sphynxs possess a kind nature, are highly intelligent cats, very lively, very people-oriented and extremely loyal to their owners. The are very playful and learn tricks very quickly at a point that its fanciers say they look more like a monkey or that they behave rather like children not like cats. They have a very expressive, nearly bewitching look, are always happy and love the human company. They are very easy to raise, are not choosy with the food and make excellent companions.

The Don Sphynxv is a robust, healthy breed with no paticular problems.

Don Sphynx have paws with strange elongated toes, which allow them to manipulate objects.