How would you describe my cat?

muse · Jul 19, 2013

She was abandoned in a bean field when she was a baby (4 weeks the vet guessed), and she has some interesting calico markings, ticked fur, white belly and paws, smaller head with big ears, green eyes, a super long tail, a REALLY long body, but she is almost a year and barely over 6 lbs. After we dewormed her she has always been more long and lanky. Everyone calls her something different. She was a rescue kitty so obviously she has no papers and is grouped in the domestic short hair breed, but she is an interesting looking cat. If anyone has similar looking cats, I'd love to hear from you! Also, if anyone can narrow down how to describe her in less words than I did, maybe with some more technical terms that cover a couple traits, that'd be awesome! I'm guessing she must have some Abyssinian in her because she has a vociferous (her loud and constant meowing is how we found her), she follows us around, she loves to play fetch or catch, and she is very easy to train. Maybe her talkativeness comes from some Siamese in her background. However, she is definitely not a pure bred. She has the dominant stripes on her legs and face and ticked fur on her body, but she is definitely a calico and you can kind of see her stripes, kind of, on her body. The colors she has are pretty wide ranging though, dark browns, black, light browns, gray, deep dark orange and light oranges and white. Her colors are quite mesmerizing to look at. Here are some pics:

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maewkaew · Jul 20, 2013

Let's see, how would I describe this cat?
"Gorgeous" is a word that comes to mind.

But if you mean in terms of color;/ pattern, I think I would call her Brown Spotted Torbie and White.
Either that or Brown Ticked Torbie and White.

It is hard to see if the pattern is more ticked or spotted ( but just has a lot of ticking. but is not totally broken up into ticking) . In the first photo it looks more ticked. In the photo in which one sees her side stretched out the most, she is in motion, jumping u. But I think I see a spotted pattern that is not just about the arrangement of the black and red. but actually the black is spotted.

On this page there is a Brown Spotted Torbie and White that also has a lot of ticking visible . Look under Tortie/ Torbie with White. Unfortunately the photo is quite small. http://www.seregiontica.org/Colors/withwhite/withwhite.htm

Now here in a thread on this site is Nekochan's cat who definitely is Brown Ticked Torbie and White http://www.thecatsite.com/t/244523/...ics-of-your-calico-torti-kitties#post_3207117

(Torbie is short for Tortoiseshell Tabby. It's called "Torbie" in TICA, but called "Patched Tabby" in CFA. )

If she is Ticked Tabby, she is heterozygous for ticked tabby. so there is very noticeable striping on the legs . In a cat with just one copy of the Ticked Tabby gene , they still have the other tabby pattern very visible on parts of them.
In a cat that is homozygous ticked ( 2 copies of the Ticked Tabby gene) there is less of that. and then of course via selective breeding breeders can breed for cats that have very even ticking all over.

Abys are not usually particularly loud. ( I 'm not sure if that's what you are saying?) In fact I often suggest an Aby for someone who wants a smart, active playful cat but would rather not have the vocal qualities of the Siamese & Orientals. and the ticked tabby pattern is in domestics all over the world
But it's not impossible she could have some of one of those breeds in her.
Body type looks like what would be called foreign ( moderately oriental) body type . or semi-foreign.

She'd be a great cat to show as a Household Pet ( If you did that, the judges will decide which pattern it is. Enter her as whichever one you think is right, and if they don't agree they can change how it is listed.)

muse · Jul 20, 2013

Thank you so much!! This was so helpful! We have been told a patched tabby once before but were told many other things by vet an vet techs, which was a little humorous sometimes but appreciated all the same. You really know your cats and are able to explain where you are getting these terms, and i am very grateful you took the time to explain!!

I didn't know non pure bred cats could do shows. Putting Kodi in show sounds like a blast!! I think we might look in to it

Again thank you so much for everything!

abymummy1 · Jul 20, 2013

In CFA speak she'd be a brown patched mac tabby and white. Very nice gamut of colors there!

maewkaew · Jul 20, 2013

LOL now between Abymummy and me, we have mentioned 3 out of 4 tabby patterns. At least we agree she's not a classic tabby! ( She said mac, which is short for mackerel -- that's the pattern with vertical stripes on the sides. . It can be difficult to draw the line between spotted and mackerel, since a cat can be classified as mackerel tabby, but with stripes that are broken up. so it just depends HOW broken up it is. and in some of her photos it looks more so than others.
And that can be harder to see in photos of a torbie ( patched tabby).

You can definitely show non pedigreed cats. and a playful, outgoing cat, in good healthy body condition, with this sort of interesting, attractive pattern often does very well.
For the North American based associations, the rules are they have to be at least 4 months, and if 8 months or up, need to be spayed / neutered. In CFA they cannot be declawed.
I'm not sure where you are located but all TICA shows have Household Pet classes ( categories). Many CFA shows do too. In TICA they will keep track of their points and they can earn titles and regional / international awards. In CFA they don't track them on an association -wide basis, so they don't have official CFA Household Pet titles or HHP National Winners like they have for the pedigreed show cats, but some of the individual regions in CFA are very supportive of HHP showing, and they do have regional awards for the highest ranking ones.
ACFA, a smaller U.S. association that has quite a few shows in some regions of the country, also has HHP classes.
The CCA/ AFC in Canada also has HHPs at shows and has HHP National Winners you can see on their website.
In the UK, the GCCF also have Household Pet classes at shows; not sure if it's all GCCF shows or just many of them.

Anyway if you are interested in showing her, check out cat association websites ( or another one if you're in a different country than these) for info on show schedule and about showing Household Pets. The Entry Clerk for a show can help you through the process of filling out entry forms, and you should let them know it is your first show and ask to be benched with someone nice who can help show you the ropes!

BTW here is TICA's Household Pet Cat of the Year for 2011, IW SGM Awesome Amber of Careycats.... who is a Brown Mackerel Torbie and White!

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maewkaew
Jul 20, 2013

And the other link I put before to a post on TCS with photos of Nekochan's Ticked Torbie -- I think she has been shown in TICA .
I have seen Amber and I think I've seen Harlequin.
Here is Harlequin's Catster page, which includes a video of her getting Best HHP at a cat show. http://www.catster.com/cats/815676

tryton76 · Jul 21, 2013

She looks identical to mine which I rescued from a bush near my work at around 4-6 weeks old. Do a google image search, but I was told it's a Dilute Calico. The markings and faded calico color are almost identical to mine when she was that age. And likewise, I used to call mine the dingo because she had this long lanky body and legs and what seemed like a huge long tail. I asked the vet about all that and he said cats don't grow in perfect symmetrical balance. Mine is 15 months now. Her body caught up but for a little while she had a tiny little head ha ha. I guess it's not different than us humans and our awkward adolescent years where we grow a foot in one summer, or have goofy features until the rest of our body catches up

tryton76 · Jul 21, 2013

Here is mine. They could be twins!!!

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lyrajean · Jul 21, 2013

Here's another torbie, calico tabby, w/white etc.... Our Midori is just a Sweetie. Rescued from HS too so she's around 12yrs old but we really don't know.

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lyrajean
Jul 21, 2013

Just for contrast here she is with Aya a true calico:

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Jul 21, 2013

To the OP: your kitty is very cute. Good luck to you if you want to show her and she has the purr-sonality for it. I would love to show Aya as she is a domestic "type" you don't see often on these shores, being a relative of the J-bobtail, but she does not have the right temperament for it at all. Too much torti-tude!

maewkaew · Jul 21, 2013

Tryton, wow they really do look similar! Yours has the dilute version of the colors. Muse's cat is not dilute. You can see in several of her photos that her colors are a more intense version. your cat's colors are more delicate; she would be called Blue Torbie and White in TICA. .
but the photos are not a clear enough view of her side to see which kind of tabby pattern is in there. but the word for the type of tabby pattern would go right before the word Torbie.

Some people do casually use the term "calico" for any arrangement of tortoiseshell coloring and white patches, whether or not there's also a tabby pattern showing in both types of color. so I can see why someone would say dilute calico.
In a more strict definition calico is used more for a certain sort of Tortie & White .
LyraJean 's photos give a great example of a true calico. You can see the cat has quite a lot of white, and big distinct patches of the red-based color and black-based color, and those black patches are solid, not tabby-patterned.

What a lovely bunch of torties and tricolor cats.

tryton76 · Jul 22, 2013

Here are some more clear photos. I feel like she's "darkened" up a bit over the past months. The very last one was the day I got her. She weighed 1 lb, had fleas, ticks, mites, worms and it had rained for a week straight. She never hissed at me once. She was so defeated. The top one is the most current. She's 15 months now