unsure of two kitty's!

[louiseg]

hi there,

we got our two kitty's from two different places....the first cleo and her and her litter were dumped at a friends vet so no clue what she is....we were just told that she's a long haired domestic! the second is flik and we got her at a pet shop...they just had her down as a short haired domestic.....any thoughts??

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• louiseg
• May 10, 2013

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• louiseg
• May 10, 2013

 

[StefanZ]

Yes, it was surely correct about the "breed".  sometimes it is not clear cut if it is short longhair, or longhaired shorthair.  The tail is revealing them...

What you perhaps mean, is what teh pattern is called.  The one is tabby, the stripes are called mackerel.  color - possibly silver, Im not sure.  Silver mackerel tabby, if I understand it.

The other is some sort of tortoise, or tortie.

Both nice beauties you can be happy to have!

Good luck!

 

[callista]

Tortie-and-white if that patch on her chest is part of more white, perhaps a white paw or two... What a cutie! And a little orange chin, with the rest of her face almost all black. I do love the way tortie coloring turns out sometimes.

I think Cleo is a blue mackerel tabby--blue being the cat fancy term for gray; don't ask me why. If she's got a big bushy tail then you can say longhair; if it's just fluffy, she's a shorthaired cat. She looks soo comfy! I take it she's a lap cat.

 

[melesine]

How do you determine the difference between a blue tabby and a silver tabby? I find the tabbys to be the hardest for me to figure out. When I looked at the kitty I thought silver tabby because of the black stripes over the shoulders. But my blue cat is solid colored so I don't have a fair comparison. 

I also find it odd that in cats long hair is all about the tail. My foster mama has a long fluffy tail, ear and toe tufts and lynx tips with long hair on her britches and belly but shorter hair elsewhere. Then I have my ragdoll which is clearly longhaired. I know that they have found 4 different long hair genes and that cats can either have 2 of the same gene or two different long hair genes. It's just so interesting how different the long haired cats hair can be with those limited gene options. 

 

[louiseg]

Awww thanks for the kind words about my lovely kitty's....flik has white pretty must all over her tummy....but thats where the white stops!! I love the pads of her feet though....they're all different colours.
So there is must debate on cleo...i must say her tail is long and bushy....heaps bushier than her normail fur....her back legs from behind are also very bushy....she looks like shes wearing panta when u look at her from behind lol she also has really long whiskers and ear hairs?!

 

[louiseg]

Their faces look completely different!! For both being domestics?! I thought they would have similar features?! We were told cleo may have some ragdoll in her???

 

[StefanZ]

Domestic is not a breed, is is sooner, lack of breed. And thus - they can be almost whatever... Cats become breed and purebreed, because some people did wanted to know for certain, they wanted to pure breed some especial features.

Without this systematic pure breeding - you can get practically whatever.  The peculiar is, practically all cats do make fantastic family pets and loving friends anyway, if they get a honest chance for ti...

 

[callista]

They call them "domestics" because that is the term for any cat without a purebred lineage--the cats who catch our mice, warm our laps, capture our hearts, and have kept us company since the first cat decided that human granaries made excellent hunting grounds. And because we liked cats for what they already were, we didn't modify them very much, and they diversified into different colors and body types and personalities, all on their own, and we let them do it because however they looked, they were still cats and they still did the job we needed them to do.

Most cats are "domestics" rather than "mixed breeds", because we never needed to create cat breeds to begin with. Cat breeds are a relatively new phenomenon, and mixed-breeds and purebreds are only a small percentage of the total cat population. Most cats have no formal breed; they are the cats that weren't selected for their looks, but for their ability to be companions and working animals living with humans. It wasn't intentional breeding, but it was a sort of selection: We chose cats which were friendlier, more confident, more playful, and more willing to hunt even when they were not hungry; and we chose cats for their ability to charm us both with their personalities and with their diverse coat patterns. The result of those thousands of years of selection is the domestic cat--a diverse, hardy, and companionable animal which has changed just enough, since its wild days, to throw its lot in with us.