Do I have a Tabby or a Torbie? Faint markings are confusing!

[amy dubis]

This is my very first post here, though I've been a lurker on this site for years. I'm a bit OCD when it comes to knowing everything about my cats, and this question has been bothering me since I met my new kitty.

This little man found me after I had spent two weeks trying to catch a tiny female black kitten that acted more like a seasoned feral who had evaded humans and their traps for years. Seriously, I tried everything to catch this cat. I had named said kitten Iphigenia, from the Greek tragedy, and was disappointed when she disappeared one day. I went outside to look for her one more time, and a new cat was in her usual hang out area. I didn't even feed him and he followed me home, up three flights of stairs. He looked like he had been in a few cat fights and didn't look well taken care of. Fast-forward a week and he's had his shots and is curled up on my couch. Since I had named the kitten Iphigenia, I named him after the character's older brother who rescues her, Orestes. And after that mouthful, I now come to my problem...

Is this little man a tabby or a torbie? He has obvious gray tabby markings and a white tuxedo pattern, but there are faint patches of cream on his face and legs. I'm posting some pictures below so you can see just how faint I'm talking. There in lies my problem- do these very faint markings qualify as a torbie or just as a tabby with some odd coloring?

IMG_2045.JPG

• amy dubis
• Jul 5, 2016

IMG_2047.JPG

• amy dubis
• Jul 5, 2016

IMG_2049.JPG

• amy dubis
• Jul 5, 2016

 

[red top rescue]

It would be rare indeed for him to be a torbie, so I will say TABBY for sure.  To have the orange or cream that would make him a torbie, he would need to have an extra X chromosome!  A very simplified explanation is that Black and Red (or their dilutes, grey and cream) are each carried on the X Chromosome.  A male has only ONE of these, as males have XY.   A female has two of these, as females have XX.  Kittens get one from each parent, so they are also either XY or XX.  If you have a black male and an orange female parents (leaving out any patterning genes, this is just for simple explanation), they could have black males or orange males, black females or tortie females.  They could not have orange females or tortie males.

Occasionally tortie males do show up, and they have an extra X chromosome, so they are XXY. 

Your lovely little boy here has basically three things influencing his color.  He is GREY rather than black, so he has the "dilute" gene.  He has stripes, so he carries the TABBY pattern.  He also has white feet and nose with a blaze so he carries the TUXEDO pattern.

Put that all together and you have a grey tabby tuxedo domestic shorthair.

 

[Willowy]

Yeah, I'll say that's just shading too. It looks more dramatic because he's a dilute. But normal tabby shading. Red areas on torbies tend to be a little more random, so since all his reddish bits are between stripes I'm going to go with tabby.

He's gorgeous!

 

[posiepurrs]

The creamy/orange color you are seeing is most likely what breeders call tarnishing, at least in my breed that is what it is called. It is not desirable on show cats, but can be quite striking otherwise.

 

[StefanZ]

In a tortie, the patches lay randomly. Not seldom there is a revealing "scar" on the head. Here the cremish spots arent at all randomly, they are nicely combined with the tabby stripes, an integrated part of the whole.  "remove one of them and everything will fall apart".

So no, whatever we call them, they arent no tortie creme spots.

Also, as Red Top says, male torties are rare.

Interesting story you tell.   Its as if the Godess took back the unwilling little female, and instead send you the willing bro.

Who knows, she was perhaps send to test you and your determination to try and help out...   And after you made your exam with excellent marks, you got what you sought.