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I know you can't give me a solid answer, but is he? He weighs like 23 pounds. His name is Smokee.
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Is my cat a tabby?
- Thread starter lunettamarie
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Usually tabbies are characterized by the "M" on their forehead. Smokee definitely has it! Very handsome by the way.
If you go to wikipedia and search for "tabby cat" it will give you a nice description of cats with this type of fur pattern.
If you go to wikipedia and search for "tabby cat" it will give you a nice description of cats with this type of fur pattern.
Tabby isn't a breed, it's a pattern, so anybody can give a solid answer on that one---yep, he sure is! Very definitely. Does he have stripes on his sides or swirls? If stripes, he's a mackerel tabby, if swirls, he's a classic tabby (also could be a spotted tabby but from what I see he doesn't look too spotty ).
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Definitely tabby. I love those brown tabby boys. My particular brown tabby, Tiny, is better at understanding me than any other cat I've ever met. He's practically psychic... only, y'know, not; just very perceptive. 
Yep, "tabby" is a pattern that occurs in many breeds, as well as in random-bred cats. I would say yours is a random-bred cat, since he doesn't look particularly like any breed, but does resemble the domestic cat's wildcat ancestors.
Here, for example, is a photo of a wildcat, the species from which we believe our cats descended. You can see the brown tabby pattern, which looks a lot like your cat's. This particular cat is an African wildcat.
(Photo credit africanwildcat.org.)
Here is a purebred brown tabby Persian, with that same pattern:
(Image from persipals.com, the breeder's site.)
And this is my cat Tiny, who has a brown mackerel tabby pattern, and is no particular breed.
When a cat doesn't have a breed, we just call it "domestic longhair" or "domestic shorthair" for the purposes of the vet paperwork; realistically, though, DLH/DSH is a huge category, with so much variety and beauty that you can only recognize a DLH/DSH cat by comparing it to known breeds and finding no matches. About 95% of cats are DSH/DLH.
Yep, "tabby" is a pattern that occurs in many breeds, as well as in random-bred cats. I would say yours is a random-bred cat, since he doesn't look particularly like any breed, but does resemble the domestic cat's wildcat ancestors.
Here, for example, is a photo of a wildcat, the species from which we believe our cats descended. You can see the brown tabby pattern, which looks a lot like your cat's. This particular cat is an African wildcat.
Here is a purebred brown tabby Persian, with that same pattern:
And this is my cat Tiny, who has a brown mackerel tabby pattern, and is no particular breed.
When a cat doesn't have a breed, we just call it "domestic longhair" or "domestic shorthair" for the purposes of the vet paperwork; realistically, though, DLH/DSH is a huge category, with so much variety and beauty that you can only recognize a DLH/DSH cat by comparing it to known breeds and finding no matches. About 95% of cats are DSH/DLH.
