# Snowshoe Breed?



## LumLumPop (Aug 3, 2013)

Does anyone on this site own a Snowshoe cat? I have one named Charlie but I'm a little baffled because from pictures I've seen online he looks a little different. He doesn't have the white "V" in between his eyes. Is this just a defect? Or is he maybe half snowshoe half something else?

Charlie:









Snowshoe from Internet:


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

Well, if you don't have papers, he's probably a lot of _other_ things.


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## 10cats2dogs (Jun 16, 2013)

He could have some Snowshoe in him...
But whether or not, he's a very handsome boy!


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## Marcia (Dec 26, 2010)

It's not a "defect", it's just his coloring. He is most likely not a pure bred Snowshoe. Few cats are pure and without papers you will never know. I would not even trust papers anymore. People can forge those very easily now a days. Charlie is quite handsome!!


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## Carmel (Nov 23, 2010)

My aunt has a "Snowshoe"... seems I can't wrap my family's head around the concept that any cat can be born with particular markings and not be a certain breed.

Your cat is actually known as a domestic mitted seal point. 

For reference though, I believe Snowshoes can look like yours, but they would not be the desired show look. I do not believe they can breed the correct look exactly, so they end up with a bunch of various mitted cats with or without markings on the face, and the face markings may also not be precise.

Here's an example of a stunning cat being born from a regular looking kitty:









This guy and another looking identical to him, along with a beautiful long haired brown tabby were born to this girl:


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## Marcia (Dec 26, 2010)

Wow! Fascinating Carmel! She really produced some stunning offspring! The long hair must be from dad's side of the family or a latent gene. I wonder if coat length is like eye color in humans. Some eye colors are more easily inherited than others.


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## DeafDogs&Cat (Mar 27, 2013)

Well, if it's anything like dogs, shorthair is dominant to longhair, so two shorthaired parents can have longhair offspring if they're carriers of the gene... but that's dogs... I dunno if cats are the same


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## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

Yes, shorthair is dominant to longhair, but if carriers can produce longhair offspring. But longhair x longhair, all kittens would be longhair.


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## Jakiepoo (Jan 5, 2013)

I'm thinking eye colours are similar, with yellow colours being the most dominant, colours like amber and stuff I would think would be recessive or just less common.

And I remember reading that blue was connected to the pointed gene, so all pointed cats have blue eyes, but then other coloured cats can have blue eyes as well, so I don't know if that has anything to do with the cat secretly being pointed or something


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## rayrhonda (Jul 31, 2012)

My kitties from the shelter were called "Snowshoe Siamese" although I know that's not correct. Snowshoes are very hard to breed to type and there are many "mismarked", but they're all beautiful.


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## maewkaew (Jun 27, 2012)

Jakiepoo said:


> I'm thinking eye colours are similar, with yellow colours being the most dominant, colours like amber and stuff I would think would be recessive or just less common.
> 
> And I remember reading that blue was connected to the pointed gene, so all pointed cats have blue eyes, but then other coloured cats can have blue eyes as well, so I don't know if that has anything to do with the cat secretly being pointed or something


 There are a few ways a cat can have blue eyes. 
One is being pointed. All pointed cats have blue eyes. 
The other main ways are connected with White. 
Solid white cats with the gene called Dominant White are often blue eyed.
And cats with the White Spotting gene who have a lot of white, especially white on the face, are sometimes blue eyed. 

Besides those 3 main ways, there are occasionally genetic mutations where cats that fall outside those categories have blue eyes, but its rare.


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## LumLumPop (Aug 3, 2013)

Thank-you everyone! Charlie is very happy with all the compliments he has recieved! I never intended for him to be a show cat! However,I was worried that my "Snowshoe" would turn out to be a "Ragdoll" instead. I don't care if he's not a purebred! I wouldn't trade him for any show cat in the world!


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