Describe Kitty!

[Sonatine]

Got this new cat (DSH). She's weird and long. Also kinda fast so I don't have too many good pictures yet but I'll post what I can.

She's a pretty big cat, weighs at least 11 pounds or so without being fat and is quite long. Big ears, longish muzzle. Coat is soft and short, not very thick. Her face makes me think she's got something of an oriental body type but I'm not sure if that means anything in the way of breed resemblance. Meow is very loud and high pitched and she never shuts up! Also not sure if she would be a caliby or a torbie and white. She's got both some bigger patches as well as more finely intermingled color.

I actually also have a picture of her mother, too! She's a tortoiseshell with the same wide spread ears that Mischief has, but I can't determine too many other details from the angle of the picture.

Also thought I'd ask about my other DSH cat. I remember I posted a thread about her a long time ago and we established that her short tail doesn't make her part manx. Does she actually look like anything else, though? She's got a weird build but I can't actually see any resemblance to a specific breed. Either way, she's super cute. One of her nicknames is Frankenkitty, because it looks like someone frankenstein'd together two halves of different cats. She's all dainty in the front and her back half looks like it came from the world's smallest sabertooth tiger.

 

[lutece]

I would describe your new kitty as a brown patched mackerel tabby and white domestic shorthair. What a colorful and elegant girl she is! Her color (patched tabby and white) has many alternate names... many people would say either torbie and white, or caliby, but personally I am not a big fan of the portmanteau color names.

As far as breed ancestry goes, her "oriental" body and head style may be just a quirk of her own unique combination of domestic cat genes, or it may indicate Siamese ancestry somewhere in her background. (Some people here will say "Oriental ancestry" because she isn't pointed in color, but the Siamese breed is more common than the Oriental breed and therefore more likely to be in a family tree, and Oriental cats have Siamese in their background anyway...)

As for your short-tailed cat, I would describe her as a brown mackerel tabby domestic shorthair. She has a beautiful face! I don't see any indication of specific breed ancestry in her photos. A short tail like that can be either genetic or caused by an injury. I have had cats with both types of short tails... I once had a cat whose mother chewed his tail by mistake when he was a newborn, and I have also had a kitten with a shortened tail with a kink at the end that appeared to be genetic. Mutations for tail kinks and shortened tails are common all over the world, and do not indicate specific breed ancestry.

 

[Sonatine]

I would describe your new kitty as a brown patched mackerel tabby and white domestic shorthair. What a colorful and elegant girl she is! Her color (patched tabby and white) has many alternate names... many people would say either torbie and white, or caliby, but personally I am not a big fan of the portmanteau color names.

As far as breed ancestry goes, her "oriental" body and head style may be just a quirk of her own unique combination of domestic cat genes, or it may indicate Siamese ancestry somewhere in her background. (Some people here will say "Oriental ancestry" because she isn't pointed in color, but the Siamese breed is more common than the Oriental breed and therefore more likely to be in a family tree, and Oriental cats have Siamese in their background anyway...)

As for your short-tailed cat, I would describe her as a brown mackerel tabby domestic shorthair. She has a beautiful face! I don't see any indication of specific breed ancestry in her photos. A short tail like that can be either genetic or caused by an injury. I have had cats with both types of short tails... I once had a cat whose mother chewed his tail by mistake when he was a newborn, and I have also had a kitten with a shortened tail with a kink at the end that appeared to be genetic. Mutations for tail kinks and shortened tails are common all over the world, and do not indicate specific breed ancestry.

Thanks for your response! I had forgotten that cats of that pattern could also be called patched tabbies. And I've often wondered if Amelia's tail is a result of genetics or injury, but I don't suppose I'll ever know which. Either way, it's adorably fluffy and so cute when she's excited. I guess it doesn't matter!