We have a mystery cat. Can you help?

[IAmGrammy]

I found this little one in my car's motor, almost a year ago. He was teeny tiny then, and the vet said he was about 7-8 weeks old and had probably "hitched a ride" from a parking lot, apartment complex, etc. (That's pretty scary.) He's about a year now, his name is Hershey and he lives very happily with my 7 year-old male American Longhair Domestic, Chester. His hair is fine and silky, almost like bunny fur. He doesn't have nearly the undercoat depth that Chester has, he has a sort of "mane" or "ruff" around his neck, green eyes (for now, I guess) and when he walks, his coat sort of swings back and forth, like a cape. He has fluffs of hair in his ears and on his paw pads and although his chocolate color has darkened as he has aged, his mane is still a chocolate brown. He likes to be carried around the house, he climbs up on my chair every morning, gets on my left shoulder and "kneads bread" in the side of my neck until he falls asleep. He follows us to a closed door and meows, waiting for us to open it.

Can any of you shed any light on what sort of cat Hershey is? Thank you.

 

[makeuplover8]

I’ve seen some black hair maine coons with hair like that. Perhaps he’s a maine coon mix.

 

[IAmGrammy]

I’ve seen some black hair maine coons with hair like that. Perhaps he’s a maine coon mix.

Thank you so much. He doesn't have that "lynx fringe" on the top tips of his ears, but he's young. If he's a Maine Coon, would that come later?

 

[makeuplover8]

Thank you so much. He doesn't have that "lynx fringe" on the top tips of his ears, but he's young. If he's a Maine Coon, would that come later?

Since he’s around 1 years old he’s fully grown, so I don’t think so. He’s a mix so not all the traditional features will show up. Beautiful cat!

 

[wolfgang and brünhilde]

Thank you so much. He doesn't have that "lynx fringe" on the top tips of his ears, but he's young. If he's a Maine Coon, would that come later?

i don’t know the answer to your question, sorry but had to chime in!

i’m going to tell myself that my Brünhilde’s brother, Hershey, was rescued successfully and happily lives with you, IAmGrammy! they could be sibs your cat and mine, they look so much alike!

 

[IAmGrammy]

i don’t know the answer to your question, sorry but had to chime in!

i’m going to tell myself that my Brünhilde’s brother, Hershey, was rescued successfully and happily lives with you, IAmGrammy! they could be sibs your cat and mine, they look so much alike!

I like the "Happy Ending"! I'll let Hershey know he has a sibling, ha!

 

[Maurey]

Black domestic longhair. No particular breed or mix of breeds, like the vast majority of cats I don’t see any traits that indicate MCO or mix rather than fluffy LH, personally.

 

[IAmGrammy]

Black domestic longhair. No particular breed or mix of breeds, like the vast majority of cats I don’t see any traits that indicate MCO or mix rather than fluffy LH, personally.

Thank you, Maurey. I was confused because Chester, our Domestic Longhair is so different from Hershey.

 

[IAmGrammy]

My husband just picked up Hershey so that I could get a closer pic of his eyes, ears and ruff. (But I won't continue to belabor this or post more pics. I realize that there are too many mixed breeds running around for me to get a definitive answer and I guess that's what he is.) If you do have any thoughts, though, I'm so interested to hear them.

 

[amethyst]

I would just say domestic long hair, which just means he is a domesticated cat with long fur which is not a breed (kind of like saying "a human with curly hair" ). Only about 2% of the cat population is purebred, unlike dogs which is more like 25%, so even mixes aren't as common with cats as with dogs where people tend to better be able to say "lab mix" or "terrier mix" or whatever.

 

[IAmGrammy]

Thanks, everyone, for weighing in.

 

[Boris Diamond]

I'm not sure it's been said enough. Hershey is a very beautiful cat!

 

[IAmGrammy]

I'm not sure it's been said enough. Hershey is a very beautiful cat!

Thank you so much!!

 

[StefanZ]

Agree with the others, a stunning, beautiful DLH.
Solid black.

The whitish mane is NOT no real white. Its quite common longhaired black cats have a mane of lighter nuance... It sometimes looks almost as if the cat were a point of some sort with that black face; but its an optical illusion...

 

[IAmGrammy]

Agree with the others, a stunning, beautiful DLH.
Solid black.

The whitish mane is NOT no real white. Its quite common longhaired black cats have a mane of lighter nuance... It sometimes looks almost as if the cat were a point of some sort with that black face; but its an optical illusion...

I'm really happy if he's a DLH, because my sweet Chester is a DLH and so huggable and loving! I think Hershey is picking up his sweetness as he grows up.

(Chester in the pic)

 

[Meowmee]

i don’t know the answer to your question, sorry but had to chime in!

i’m going to tell myself that my Brünhilde’s brother, Hershey, was rescued successfully and happily lives with you, IAmGrammy! they could be sibs your cat and mine, they look so much alike!

I thought that right away, he looks like Brunhildes brother

 

[Meowmee]

I found this little one in my car's motor, almost a year ago. He was teeny tiny then, and the vet said he was about 7-8 weeks old and had probably "hitched a ride" from a parking lot, apartment complex, etc. (That's pretty scary.) He's about a year now, his name is Hershey and he lives very happily with my 7 year-old male American Longhair Domestic, Chester. His hair is fine and silky, almost like bunny fur. He doesn't have nearly the undercoat depth that Chester has, he has a sort of "mane" or "ruff" around his neck, green eyes (for now, I guess) and when he walks, his coat sort of swings back and forth, like a cape. He has fluffs of hair in his ears and on his paw pads and although his chocolate color has darkened as he has aged, his mane is still a chocolate brown. He likes to be carried around the house, he climbs up on my chair every morning, gets on my left shoulder and "kneads bread" in the side of my neck until he falls asleep. He follows us to a closed door and meows, waiting for us to open it.

Can any of you shed any light on what sort of cat Hershey is? Thank you.

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He is a gorgeous kitty whatever he is So is Chester, he looks wegie like to me.
I would say he is a dlh black kitty with forest cat ancestry, he looks more Siberian like to me. His ruff is gorgeous, it looks like light chocolate. My Zena who is a recent rescue from outside is also a dlh, a black white tuxedo, he has gray areas on his lighter areas and also where the white blends with the black. The black is very dark in areas but I think with lh it has more rusty and grey areas where it spreads out too.
Ragdoll could be another possible look alike, some unofficials are not pointed.

 

[Alldara]

Looks like a Maine Coon tabby mix.

Nobel is a Maine Coon tabby mix. He was the only boy and only short hair of the litter. All his sisters looked very similar and had that tooft of hair on the chest.

 

[goingpostal]

Looks like a Maine Coon tabby mix.

Nobel is a Maine Coon tabby mix. He was the only boy and only short hair of the litter. All his sisters looked very similar and had that tooft of hair on the chest.

Maine Coon is a breed. Tabby is a pattern. That doesn't make any sense as a mix. Was one parent a purebred papered MC and the other a DSH? Being long hair or large doesn't = MC mix in any way btw.

 

[Alldara]

Maine Coon is a breed. Tabby is a pattern. That doesn't make any sense as a mix. Was one parent a purebred papered MC and the other a DSH? Being long hair or large doesn't = MC mix in any way btw.

Sorry yes DSH.
I do not know if 'dad' was purebred or papered. But he was Maine Coon. Nobel was born in my grandmother's basement. Someone dropped his pregnant mum in the forrest. Happens a lot in farming communities. We end up with a lot of random cats. Particularly in that area as there is a surrender fee at the SPCA and no other rescues around.

One of the other adopters had her cat tested. You can see features on all of them such as the chest cowl, and her kitten had some health issues common to MC. My understanding was that the vet told her that and MC mix is what came back.

We don't know how a MC or part MC ended up knocking up a random orange and white tabby cat. And at 17/18 when I learned the information I was bothered to read much past MC mix, so I've just said MC tabby mix since then. Calcifer has black pads, skin and ear insides; I don't think he's part Bombay. It's much more likely that hes got genetics that were used to create the Bombay breed because ASH are abundant and Burmese have only been about since the 1930s. Many cat breeds are rather recent. We find the features in the general population due to that being where the genetics came from to begin with OR a careless breeder.


In any case most of the time we see genetic signals of breeds locally, it's because we're seeing the pop-up of the genetics that were used to make specific breeds.