Is this cat a specific breed?

[newythecat]

Someone abandoned my cat Colby on my grandmas porch and she saw him run into her hay shed so she went to see what it was and heard mewing, she looked up and there he was on the top of a hay bail ^.^ now he lives with my dad since my cats at my moms are too old to introduce a new kitten to... He is almost a year old now and it just occurred to me that i have never wondered if he is a particular breed of cat or not... What do you think... Im not good at telling if cats are or not haha i was wondering because he looks a bit like my neighbors cat (as in markings, his... Idk "shape" and stuff) and theirs is a breed (i forget what its called though)

image.jpg

• newythecat
• Apr 20, 2013

Oh and whats the differance between an angora cat and a normal cat?

 

[catspaw66]

He is a Domestic Short Hair, as he has no pedigree papers.  His color is orange (red) and white tabby

This is an angora cat that looks kinda like yours.

This article can explain the Angora cat better than I can.    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Angora

 

[StefanZ]

Catspaws example could also be Turkish Van (or even, I think it IS Turkish Van).  These two are akin to each other, the angora more long haired.  Both breeds are rather rare outside Turkey.

The pattern as such is called for the Van pattern - the pattern as such not so unusual.

 

[StefanZ]

Newy, please ask your neighbours what their cat is for breed. Do they have papers or why do they think it is a breed cat?

To your Newy follow up question:

Angora in nowadays language is the Turkish angora. More or less white and long hair.

But Angora is also an older word for white long haired (cats). Most of them were surely white persians.

 

[catspaw66]

I got the picture from google in the Angora cat images. I picked that one because it had the red on it. Most of the others were fluffy white cats, like StefanZ says.

 

[minka]

Google images is not a reliable source for cat breed photos.

 

[catspaw66]

I was doing it in a hurry and couldn't check like I usually do.  I did include the wikipedia article, which should have helped. 

 

[maewkaew]

Newy doesn't look like a specific breed; he looks like he's probably mostly from random-breeding cats from North America,  who descend mostly from similar cats from Europe. 

 He would be like some of the ancestors of the American Shorthair breed,  which is the pedigreed version of the random-bred domestic shorthairs from this country,  but they have been selectively bred for many many years by now.  

He looks like he may have a bit longer muzzle though...   you never know, there may have been a little influence of some cats from another part of the world in his ancestry too. 

He is a  handsome fellow.  I like his coloring ( I am partial to red tabbies),  .   I can't totally see his side but if it is vertical stripes on his sides,  that is called Red Mackerel Tabby and White.   If it is more swirly markings, bull's eye, butterfly etc. shapes on the sides, then ,  substitute the word "Classic" for  the world "Mackerel" .  

He looks quite a bit like a male version of my dad's cat , who was a feral kitten who adopted him.  except she has green eyes and it looks like Newy has gold eyes to match his coat. 

I know one kind of cat he is :    a lucky  cat,  to have found a home,  thanks to your family.

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The vast majority of cats are not specific breeds.   It is very different from dogs that usually are a breed or a mix of a few breeds.   There has been a lot more human control over dogs' breeding than cats.   The cats have mostly just bred randomly on their own,  and have a mix of genes from the general cat population in their part of the world. 

Stefan mentioned the " van pattern" but that's when they are almost all white except for the tail and some markings on the head.   ( In any case, as Stefan explained,  a van pattern doesn't mean any specific breed even though it s named after a breed that nearly always has that pattern.  but there are lots of other cats who have the pattern too.)  Anyway Turkish Van  and Turkish Angora are both longhair cats. 

The true Angora  comes from around the Turkish city Ankara.  There were longhaired cats from that region that started to be brought to other countries in the middle ages.         They are probably the oldest longhair breed.  and they  probably are distant ancestors of some other longhair breeds....      They were popular in Western Europe among some of the upper class.    They ended up being mixed a lot with Persians --   just called "Longhairs"  but breeders were using both types... eventually  it was thought that the real Angora as its own separate breed was extinct.  Then it turned out that Turkey had kept  a breeding colony at the Ankara Zoo.   so the breed has been re-established in other countries in the past several decades.   but it's a rare breed. 

Traditionally the white TAs were most prized,  and they're best known in that color,   but they do come in other colors.   Some people just tend to label any white longhaired cat as an Angora.  but usually it's not true that they are really from Turkey or descended from those cats.  

 

[manizheh]

If you are going to be allergic to cat hair Angora will probably be the worst. They have  super fine coats that would cover everything very nicely . Also they are know to like swimming and playing fetch. Not necessarily at the same time :-)