Would be curious about my sweet boys color

[msmith84]

Hi all- this is my sweet boy Winston. I got home from a shelter as a tiny kitten. He wasn't with mom so I don't know what either of his parents looked like. He could just be. DsH- but he's always had a very interesting personality and coat. He loves water, plays fetch, very vocal- you may not be able to tell from the pictures but he is mostly a dark gray, with cream coloring his belly, chest, and around his face. He has a dark grey stripe running down his back, dark rings around his tail, and the dark coloring all seems to be at the top half of the hair folical. The bottom half is cream. He also has long hairs mixed in with his short hairs.

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• msmith84
• Jul 17, 2016

 

[msmith84]

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• msmith84
• Jul 17, 2016

 

[msmith84]

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• msmith84
• Jul 17, 2016

 

[StefanZ]

Could we have a good pic of him from aside, so we can see the pattern and body and head shape?

 

[msmith84]

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• msmith84
• Jul 18, 2016

 

[msmith84]

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• msmith84
• Jul 18, 2016

 

[red top rescue]

I would call him a blue mackerel smoke tabby tuxedo domestic shorthair.  The creamy patches are interesting but I believe they are actually fawn rather than cream.  Blue is the "official" name for grey in the cat world.  The stripes are tabby, and when they are close together like that, it is called a mackerel tabby because the stripes are like those on a mackerel fish.  The fact that his coat is light underneath and darker on the tips MAY indicate he has a smoke gene too, but tabby hairs are banded with color too.  I can't tell if he's actually white at the base of his fur or if it is just a pale fawn like the marks on his flanks.  Smoke cats are white at the base of all their hair and the color comes out on the outer ends of the hair shaft, either in bands or in a solid color.  Many of them also have subtle tabby stripes in their coats too.  It is more obvious on basically black cats and more subtle on the greys.   Finally, he has the typical tuxedo pattern, with his white muzzle, blaze, chest and feet, as if he were a gentleman dressed up for a ball wearing a tuxedo. 

Here is an article about tabby patterns and another about coat colors and patterns in general.

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/tabby-cats

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/cat-coat-colors-and-patterns