Is My Cat A Snowshoe?

[Sirxham95]

This is my best buddy ash. I just got him from my sister, and she got him from some pet finder site. Hes 6 months old.

I think he's a snowshoe because of his 4 paws being white and his masked face. Just looking for some other opinions! Thanks!

 

[abyeb]

He does look like a Snowshoe! That could be from some actual Snowshoe ancestry, or a Siamese mating with a bicolor cat of any breed could make those markings. The gene for colorpointing (that is, when a cat is born white and then color develops), like in your sweet kitty, can be passed down through generations, so we really can’t know for sure exactly how much of the original Snowshoe or Siamese Ash has in him, if that makes sense. Ash is very cute! I’m going to call over 1CatOverTheLine , who is owned by a Snowshoe, and knows a lot about the breed.

 

[CaliCatCharlie]

I was also going to suggest 1CatOverTheLine

She verified my Charlie as abSnowshoe! Color me a very proud mom of a bunny footed kitty!

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

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Sirxham95 - Snowshoes - as abyeb has noted - were the result of breeding Domestic Shorthairs with Siamese. Today, pedigreed Snowshoes must be able to trace lineage, but Snowshoe look-alikes (and act-alikes) are still Snowshoes, despite the fact that they cannot be shown as such.

Sirxham95 - Your Ash is positively show-stopping. Wonderful, clearly-defined markings and mitts - exactly what the judges look for in "real" Snowshoes.

CaliCatCharlie - Your Charlie is another knockout. There's been an internal uprising gentle Movement over the past six or seven years from two CFA-affiliated groups, trying to waive multi-generational line pedigrees for the Snowshoe (which would bring new bloodlines into the breed), to allow registration of Snowshoes with a single pedigreed Siamese Parent, but so far there's been no luck, although I suspect logic will prevail eventually.

A blast from the past - one of my favourite Snowshoe threads on TCS:

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