Spooky

[ldg]

From spotty reading over the years, I've been calling Spooky a Torti-tabby, or "Torbie." I know those aren't any kind of technical term - but is either one even the "correct" layman's terms (if there is such a thing) to describe her?

This is what she looks like from the top:

__Spooky's beautiful coat Mar 2010.jpg

• ldg
• Mar 8, 2013
• 1

And from the side in a color-washed out photo in the sunlight (sorry!)

Spooky being petted by Gary Nov 9 2002.jpg

• ldg
• Mar 8, 2013
• 1

I'm wondering about the "tortoiseshell" part - because don't tortoiseshell cats have no white on them?

Spooky 110213.jpg

• ldg
• Mar 8, 2013

Spooky Dec 2010 032.JPG

• ldg
• Mar 8, 2013

She's a brown tabby, with... red and white coloring? :dk:

And IS there a word for a brown tabby that looks grey? Obviously I call them grey tabbies - but I'm pretty sure there is no "grey" in cats?

To me, Spooky looks brown, grey, and orange with white spots and tabby markings. :lol3:

Thanks!

 

[northernglow]

I'm wondering about the "tortoiseshell" part - because don't tortoiseshell cats have no white on them?


And IS there a word for a brown tabby that looks grey? Obviously I call them grey tabbies - but I'm pretty sure there is no "grey" in cats?

To me, Spooky looks brown, grey, and orange with white spots and tabby markings.

Thanks!

What do you mean torties don't have white in them? They can and often do. 

A brown tabby that looks "grey" is a brown tabby. No gray in cats. Blue, lilac and silver are also often miscalled 'grey'. Can get confusing without pics.

Spooky is indeed a brown (genetically black) tortie tabby with white. The term 'torbie' is only used in TICA, but it's also correct.

 

[Willowy]

I have a tortie with a small patch of white on her chest. I wouldn't call her "tortie and white" any more than I would call a black cat with a small white spot on his chest "black and white" :tongue2:. But they definitely can have some white.

Such a cute face!

 

[ldg]

What do you mean torties don't have white in them? They can and often do. 

You'll note the question mark at the end. Sorry it wasn't written more clearly as a question. The point of the post is that I don't know.

And thank you for taking the time to answer.

 

[pat]

She's lovely! I agree with Northern Glow (I used to show primarily in TICA so I would call her a brown Mctorbie with white, since she's a mackerel tabby versus being a classic tabby.

 

[pushylady]

Ohh she's so pretty Laurie! :love: What interesting markings. I like the term "Mctorbie", although I would say in a Scottish accent just because. :lol3:

 

[pat]

Ohh she's so pretty Laurie!

What interesting markings. I like the term "Mctorbie", although I would say in a Scottish accent just because.

Oo..thumbs up on the Scottish accent

 

[ldg]

:lol3: Thank you so much Pat (and Wendy) for that! A Mctorbie (said in a Scottish accent). :lol3:

 

[maewkaew]

Ooh i missed this one. Spooky is very striking. Nice looking cat. Yes she'd be a Brown Mc Torbie to me too . ( i like the Scottish accent part). The "Mc" is just abbreviation for "Mackerel" meaning her vertical stripes.
 
Re the grey. Brown (genetically black, but traditionally called "brown") tabbies, and by extension torbies, can have a range of tone of the color, due to various other genes that influence it. The ones with a cooler tone to the agouti bands do have more greyish color, and at the other end of the spectrum you get really very warm reddish-browns ( I mean in the black-based pigment, not just the red that the torbie has. There are brown tabbies with a very cool tone that look greyish, and others with a very warm tone. but they're both genetically black tabbies, called "brown tabbies". TICA has taken to calling them BOTH, writing it like "Brown (Black) Tabby. or "Brown (Black) Torbie". Some people in TICA would like to ease people into switching to Black which is more genetically correct and less confusing, since there is also a brown (chocolate) allele that is an alternate a to black. But they can't get everyone to agree, people are used to saying Brown Tabby and don't want to change. so they are just using both!  

When there is just a tiny amount of white like the "locket" that Spooky is wearing on her chest, or the little bit on her tummy, it usually is not due to the White Spotting gene, but just something that happened in development of the embryo that the pigment didn't get everywhere. so as Willowy said, they're not technically called "---and White"