What Breed Does My Cat Look Like?

[BasilLady]

Hey there!

I was just curious if anyone could tell me if my cat stands out as a particular breed. I figure he's probs just a tabby, but he's such a little weirdo and I wondered if I could learn more about him. I would appreciate any help!

 

[lutece]

Do you have any pictures where we can see the entire tabby pattern on his side in good lighting? He would be described as a brown tabby and white domestic shorthair, but his tabby pattern looks a bit unusual.

 

[BasilLady]

Sure! I'll post the best I've got.

...I'm realizing that half my photos of him are him curled up.

 

[lutece]

I think I would describe that tabby pattern as "broken classic" because the flow pattern has some similarity to a classic tabby, but it's mostly broken up into spots. I think I might be seeing something similar to "arrowhead rosettes" also, where the spots are shaded on one side (with a lighter color on one side of the spot, and a darker color on the other side of the spot), but it's hard to see in the pictures.

Spotted pattern by itself doesn't indicate any specific breed ancestry, however the irregularity of the pattern and the possibility of "arrowhead rosettes" might suggest a Bengal ancestor somewhere (not recent, because he doesn't look a lot like a Bengal otherwise).

 

[BasilLady]

Wow, that's amazing that you can tell so much like that. Once he wakes up from his nap I'll try to get a better shot of his side, but I appreciate your insight very much!

 

[lutece]

We can't tell anything for sure, his pattern is just a bit unusual, which could also be normal variation... there's a lot of variety in the domestic cat gene pool. But it would be good to get some clear, well-lit side pictures