- Joined
- Apr 27, 2013
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hi cat lovers! i joined this site because i was curious about my cat's looks. i'd never really paid much attention to cat breeds or genetics, as the cats i grew up with and got in my early 20s were just lovable cutie moggies. i adopted sutter in january after being captivated by him on the spca's website and visiting him a couple times. i got curious about how he could look like he does - tabby markings on the face, blue coat, white belly and collar and paws, sploochy tabby residuals on legs, tipped tail, green almond eyes, those ears.... so i started to do my internet research. i've since read about the abyssinian, about cat genetics for coat coloring, and many threads where people ask if their kitten resembles an aby. i've seen many kittens who are very obviously not aby in such threads, and i've looked at many pictures of aby cats and kittens, including dilute silver abys ... so i guess i am informedly asking if people think my kitten resembles an aby. i am really looking for second opinions, because i am convinced he does.
i know it's super rare to get any kind of true breed cat from a shelter and that he's no purebread without papers. please don't tell me that in response. i don't really care if he is a purebread cat and i'm not asking if he is - i know he's a domestic shorthair without papers, even if he comes from aby heritage. i'm more asking if to know if me and my boyfriend are the only ones who see the resemblance to abys in general and dilute silver abys in particular ... to me, it's uncanny, in temperament and physique/image. i've only seen photos and read what's on the interwebs, so opinions of in-the-know cat fanciers (am i using that term right?) would be so very much appreciated.
sutter has all of the characteristics of an aby that i've read about. personality-wise, he's super active, incredibly affectionate, highly curious, gets in the shower with me, plays with the bath water, snuggles under the covers, listens,and responds. he is definitely the alpha cat over my other kitten oleg and my old bitty nina. he is not really vocal - he'll rumple a wee bit if i try to hold him anywhere other than on my shoulder and will growl a bit if oleg play fights with him too much, but he is hellof social with me, always following me around and wanting to see what is going on, and after he exerts his energy (which he does in bursts of playful hilarity, with jumps and flops and twists and turns and runs up and down and around and on everything he can, but gracefully too), he comes and snuggles right up next to me. it is pretty amazing. his coat is super soft and silky, definitely dense. not like the coats of my other two, or of my old man who passed late last year.
i've posted pics of sutter, and one of him snuggling with oleg where you can really see the lynx tips on his pointy, rather big ears. he's got green almond eyes rimmed in black then white, tabby markings on face and in splooches on legs but nowhere else, and a little white tip on his tail. his coat is definitely ticked, and i'm sure it'll come in more as he ages - in the pics, he's 4 and 5 months. he's got a bump in his nose, too. he sure looks like pictures of other silver aby cats i've found on the interwebs. either that, or he's normal blue aby but hellof piebald. if he is aby or part aby, he's clearly got the spotting gene and undesirable white markings - the collar, the banded tail, the "stripes" that aren't in any sort of traditional tabby pattern on his sides. his underhairs are white too, so probably inhibitor gene - hence my thoughts on silver aby.
am i way off base? thoughts? is it possible for a cat to be both ticked and have very irregular stripes? how probable is it that he's an aby and that i just got ridiculously lucky? thanks!
jenniferjuniper
nosebreak ... and how he loves those feathers.
i know it's super rare to get any kind of true breed cat from a shelter and that he's no purebread without papers. please don't tell me that in response. i don't really care if he is a purebread cat and i'm not asking if he is - i know he's a domestic shorthair without papers, even if he comes from aby heritage. i'm more asking if to know if me and my boyfriend are the only ones who see the resemblance to abys in general and dilute silver abys in particular ... to me, it's uncanny, in temperament and physique/image. i've only seen photos and read what's on the interwebs, so opinions of in-the-know cat fanciers (am i using that term right?) would be so very much appreciated.
sutter has all of the characteristics of an aby that i've read about. personality-wise, he's super active, incredibly affectionate, highly curious, gets in the shower with me, plays with the bath water, snuggles under the covers, listens,and responds. he is definitely the alpha cat over my other kitten oleg and my old bitty nina. he is not really vocal - he'll rumple a wee bit if i try to hold him anywhere other than on my shoulder and will growl a bit if oleg play fights with him too much, but he is hellof social with me, always following me around and wanting to see what is going on, and after he exerts his energy (which he does in bursts of playful hilarity, with jumps and flops and twists and turns and runs up and down and around and on everything he can, but gracefully too), he comes and snuggles right up next to me. it is pretty amazing. his coat is super soft and silky, definitely dense. not like the coats of my other two, or of my old man who passed late last year.
i've posted pics of sutter, and one of him snuggling with oleg where you can really see the lynx tips on his pointy, rather big ears. he's got green almond eyes rimmed in black then white, tabby markings on face and in splooches on legs but nowhere else, and a little white tip on his tail. his coat is definitely ticked, and i'm sure it'll come in more as he ages - in the pics, he's 4 and 5 months. he's got a bump in his nose, too. he sure looks like pictures of other silver aby cats i've found on the interwebs. either that, or he's normal blue aby but hellof piebald. if he is aby or part aby, he's clearly got the spotting gene and undesirable white markings - the collar, the banded tail, the "stripes" that aren't in any sort of traditional tabby pattern on his sides. his underhairs are white too, so probably inhibitor gene - hence my thoughts on silver aby.
am i way off base? thoughts? is it possible for a cat to be both ticked and have very irregular stripes? how probable is it that he's an aby and that i just got ridiculously lucky? thanks!
jenniferjuniper
nosebreak ... and how he loves those feathers.
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