Feral Snowshoe?

[lavishsqualor]

This is one of my ferals.

His name is Sinatra because of his clear blue eyes.

I'm very new to the cat world and had never heard of Snowshoes before.

Sinatra appears to be at least part Snowshoe, no?

 

[mightyboosh]

I'm sure 1CatOverTheLine will have something to say when he comes across this thread.

 

[abyeb]

I agree, I think there’s a very good chance he’s part Snowshoe.

 

[lavishsqualor]

If it weren't for 1CatOverTheLine I would still think that Snowshoes were only, well, shoes for the snow! For years I've thought that Sinatra just had to be special because of his coloring and eyes, and now those suspicions are confirmed! With, of course, a little help from my friends. Sinatra is probably not pure bred but I think there is a pretty good chance he's a mix. Can't wait to hear from 1CatOverTheLine and his rapier wit!

 

[StefanZ]

Kieka knows a lot about this pattern

 

[Kieka]

Snowshoe is the specific breed known for being a bicolor pointed shorthair and a lot of people call any bicolor pointed shorthair pattern Snowshow because of it. Technically, only those who directly trace to pedigree Snowshoes are Snowshoes. The breed started because it randomly occurred in a litter and was liked so it was developed. But the bicolor pointed can occur anytime you have two pointed gene carriers who also have the bicolor pattern mate; they don't have to have any relation to a recognized Snowshoe to have the look of one. All Snowshoes are bicolor pointed, but not all bicolor pointed are Snowshoes (although you can definitely call them that as long as you aren't breeding and trying to upsell for a better price).

One indicator of them being close to an actual purebred can sometimes be in the eyes. The richer and deeper the blue the more likely it was the result of some selective breeding as the naturally occurring blue tends more towards a paler blue almost with a hint of grey. By that theory Sinatra is probably a lucky genetic mix rather than a direct or recent line to Siamese or Snowshoe like my Rocket is.

That all said, he is a lovely young male example of why the breed is so desired. The long body of a Siamese with the the white off setting the dark points. So pretty. My girl is a feral Snowshoe lookalike too from a long line of tabbys (but a little pointed boy got into the colony and so Rocket was born).

20161218_121330.jpg

• Kieka
• Jan 5, 2017

 

[Alejandra Rico]

JSinatra has such a funny mark in his hind legs! It looks like the tail and hind legs of a smaller White Cat, how amazing!

 

[lavishsqualor]

It's all very interesting and I appreciate the comments and information. Sinatra's eyes are definitely a lighter, more grayish blue than, say, 1CatOvertheLine's Moo Shu's, so I would agree that he is not a direct Snowshoe descendant. Even so, he's such a striking feral! He has finally accepted me a little and will allow a quick stroke on the head but nothing more than that. With his beautiful color-points and eyes he is probably very adoptable.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

lavishsqualor - The "original" Snowshoes of the early 1960s (i.e. Dorothy Hinds-Daugherty's "remake" of the Silver Laces program of the 1950s) were simply Siamese x Domestic Shorthair crosses. Vikki Olander picked up Ms. Hinds-Daugherty's program, breeding three Snowshoe-pattered Sisters with two other studs, in an effort to maintain the genetics without increasing the amount of inbreeding. It was Ms. Olander who managed to have the breed registered (and an Experimental), but by the time she found a breeder to intercede for her with the CFF, Ms. Olander had only four Snowshoes - thankfully the results of four different familial crosses.

Pointed, mitted cats who express epistatic white inside the mask are no different than Hinds-Daugherty's original gene pool - Siamese and Domestic Shorthair - and the pattern is naturally-occurring (sometimes just as evenly and as "true-to-standard" as Snowshoes traced directly to the original Kensing Cattery Snowshoes).

Personal opinion: there's an allele pair which conveys the epistatic white's distribution, confining it to the mask and feet, and not the tail. This allele pair is, I believe, directly linked to the Evilness Gene.


.

 

[lavishsqualor]

This allele pair is, I believe, directly linked to the Evilness Gene.

No one makes me laugh like you do, 1CatOvertheLine. You're such a great asset to this board!

 

[raysmyheart]

lavishsqualor , Sinatra's front legs almost could be a match for my Speedy's front legs and I have been told that my Speedy is perhaps part of this Snowshoe family. Which I find very confusing, by the way, because of their many wonderful patterns. Sinatra is beautiful!

 

[dustydiamond1]

No one makes me laugh like you do, 1CatOvertheLine. You're such a great asset to this board!