What Breed Does My Cat Look Like?

[Chuck and Tobe]

Hello everyone this is my cat Tobie, he’s a couple years old, I rescued him off the streets a year and a half ago. We’ve always wondered if he’s actually a bob tailed cat or what? My guess is maybe he’s a pixie bob but I’m not sure, what does anyone else think! The pictures don’t show it well but he has a short tail that is bent and almost curly.

 

[lutece]

I would describe your Tobie as a black bobtailed domestic shorthair. He's very handsome!

Short kinky tails appear to be a relatively common type of mutation in the cat; various genes that cause short kinky tails have appeared independently in different areas of the world. Your cat may share the same bobtail gene as one of the established bobtailed breeds, such as the American Bobtail, Pixie Bob, or Japanese Bobtail, or his short tail may be due to a different gene that was a random mutation. It is also possible that it may be something that happened during fetal development, and not genetic at all.

Here's an interesting study about short-tailed cats in Asia that also has some discussion about bobtail genes in general.
Whole Genome Sequencing Identifies a Missense Mutation in <i>HES7</i> Associated with Short Tails in Asian Domestic Cats