Turkish Van?

[Caspers Human]

I never stated that Bella is a full bed Van.

We didn't have papers for Spike so, officially, he wouldn't have been an purebred Van, either.

We adopted Spike from somebody else who bought him as a Van. They didn't really understand cats. Any time he did anything remotely cat-like, he got punished. He was a headstrong cat, to boot. His original owner decided he was incorrigible and didn't want him, anymore. We adopted him, practically sight unseen. We went over to their place for a visit and took him home, right then and there.

Basically, Spike's original owner just wanted to have a "fancy" cat but wasn't prepared to take care of a cat the way they should. I wouldn't say we took him as a rescue or anything like that. He was being fed and looked after but we knew that he needed a good home and that wasn't it. We put Spike in the car. The other person gave us his bag of food and off we went. We didn't even ask for Spike's papers.

We know that Spike was supposed to be a Van but, without papers, he was "just a cat" but we didn't care.
His markings were a little bit off from the standards. We always figured that he was sold as a pet but not for show. He did come pre-neutered which, as I understand, is not uncommon for breeders to do with cats that are a little bit off standard.ss

We couldn't prove that Spike was an actual Van but we didn't adopt him because he was any particular kind of cat. We liked Spike and we wanted to take him home and that's all that mattered.

What should we say when we're trying to describe our cats? It's not technically correct to say that Spike was a true Van because we couldn't prove it but, when somebody asked, we said he was a Van.

Your cat looks enough like a Van to me. She behaves like a Van, too. If somebody asks you what kind of cat she is, what are you going to say?... "Looks like a Van cat but born to a Tabby mother and an unknown father" ?? That's too much of a mouthful!

You can give all the details if somebody wants to know. That's what I do when people ask about Spike. I just say, "Van," but don't tell the full story unless it's important or topical.

Just say, "She's a Van."

 

[Zara12345]

Love of water isn't a trait that is concentrated to a breed or particular to TVs, there's plenty of Vans that hate water and there's plenty of domestics that love it. This has nothing to do with breed. By that logic my Bengal isn't really a Bengal because she doesn't play in the water and the breed is known to be water lovers. There are lots and lots of random bred cats that look and act like a purebred counterpart because most breeds were developed from the domestic population, all these colors and behaviors exist in cats all over the world. Only very recently have we created breeds and cats are only considered to be those breeds if they have a verifiable pedigree.

True!! Cat breeds only became a thing recently and most domestic cats pretty much share the same genetics. So in order to classify a cat as belonging to a particular breed, a pedigree document that has documented and shows the cats lineage is the only way. Not even "genetic tests" will be able to distinguish between cat breeds as most of these breeds were produced as a result of selective breeding.
However, that doesn't mean that cat breeds aren't a thing. It is common for cats of a particular breed to have common traits and dispositions however, a pedigree cannot determine just how much our cats actually mean to us or the place they have in our hearts we simply love them for who they are.