What would be the best description of Rain's color?

mackiemac

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She is definitely "Blue" (gray)... but is she "Blue something"... other than just solid blue? When her hair lays flat, it looks at first glance like it's just solid blue, but when it parts over a joint, or when I lift it up, it's much lighter underneath. In sunlight, it sort of takes on a light silvery cast or "shine", and her muzzle is also light silvery instead of "pewter". I can't really see ticking or banding in the individual hair strands even with a magnifier, but it does seem to shade lighter toward the base of each individual hair. She has very little undercoat (compared to, say, our Persians, or to a Maine coon or some other very longhaired cat) I also see that where her spay shave is growing back, the base of the hair around the shaved area is lighter than the rest of the shaft... say, about the bottom 1/4 to 1/3 of the hair is silvery, the rest is "pewter". When she moves around, and the fur parts around her elbows or shoulders, you can see flashes of the much whiter/silvery "underside", and of course we have that beautiful silvery "shimmer that shows up in bright light. I tried to get pictures to better describe all of this, but she's just being too silly and wiggly for me to get a good shot! Our old gray girl, Skye, also had the white underneath, but her mother was a purebred Birman and Skye was much longer haired so it was more noticeable. Rain is Domestic, and we have no idea what either parent looked like.

Would she be considered a "blue smoke"?
 

lutece

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From her pictures, I don't think she is blue smoke. She appears to be solid blue to me.

It's normal for blue cats to have a lighter undercoat, and lighter tips to the hair. The color of the undercoat and the amount of silver tipping varies from cat to cat, but these effects go along with the blue dilution. Long haired cats will also tend to have a lighter colored undercoat than short haired cats.

A blue smoke cat would have white or off-white at the base of each hair, with a distinct change in color between the white band and the blue hair tip.
 
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mackiemac

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Thanks... and from what I've read on CFA, it can sometimes be hard to ascertain in kittens anyway, until the adult coat is in. She just turned 5 calendar months (we think), so she still has a lot of her kitten coat left. Whatever kind of blue she is, it's beautiful. We love all kinds of blue cats. Rain just has such a lovely shine to her coat. We're so used to the super-fluff of our Persians that seeing a different coat texture is a change.
 

lutece

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By five months, if she were a smoke you would be able to see the white band at the base of her hairs.

Here are some close ups of a short haired blue cat (I just took them of the closest cat next to me on the couch)... You can see the light base of the hair, and the silver tipping. These are both normal features of solid blue cats. The light base of the hair and light undercoat can be even more obvious and dramatic on a long haired cat.

IMG_20191204_131001-2.jpg IMG_20191204_130920-2.jpg
 
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mackiemac

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Rain is then a solid blue, not smoke. 🙂 I'm much more accustomed to our colorpoints. It's been a very long time since we've had anything BUT colorpoints, so classifying solids and other patterns besides tabbies or tortoiseshells is a bit different for me! Kepler and Kirchen were blue point Himalayans. Michael, Beowulf and Hengist were seal point Himmies, and Schrödinger is a seal point Tonkinese. Tara was a lilac point Himmy.

Nirvana was a black colorpoint carrier Himalayan according to her ACFA registration paper and one of the few exceptions to our colorpoints. Apparently, one of her parents was pointed and the other was solid-- I really don't know because she was left with us when her previous owner moved away and "dumped" her with us... it was a sad situation, but we were actually blessed because she had already chosen to live with us before he took off, anyhow. She was a wonderful cat. I digress, but I also have a picture of this lovely and stately lady

Manic X Nirvana, or just Nirvana... aka "Miss Kitty" (1990-2002) She was solid black at one time, but she had been living outdoors and the sun faded her beautiful coat. This is shortly before she was left with us... I seldom have much chance to show her off, but I do so now to keep her memory alive. 🥰 🌈

1575525536727.png


Anyway, I'm a lot better at ID'ing colorpoints and Persians, than anything else, simply because we have had so many!
 
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