# What breed is my cat?



## Alpaca

Hi, I'm a newcomer with a new kitten named Miu Miu. Adopted her from the shelter so no idea about her background. I'm intrigued about her markings though. She looks like a little lynx! I've been looking up hybrid combos, but most of them have spots. Miu has dark stripes all over her body including around her stomach. She has lynx-like ear tufts as well as a black dorsal stripe all the way down her back and tail with the end of her tail being completely black. She also has black fur on the backside of her hind legs and paws. Does anyone know what lineage she could have?


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## Heidi n Q

Sorry. Without breeders certificates and/or registration papers, she is simply a domestic long haired kitty. Long-hairs can have long ear tufts but even short haired cats can have them, too. _It is simply a genetic trait, like us having either attached or hangy-down ear lobes._ She is a beautiful Mackerel pattern Tabby cat.
heidi =^..^=


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## raecarrow

With cats, it is really hard to tell. Especially when the cat is a kitten. Some of the tell-tale features of certian breeds don't become apparent until they grow up.


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## Alpaca

Thanks for the compliment, Heidi! 

I guess I'll have to wait and see, she's still a kitten right now! I swear, she totally reminds me of some miniature wildcat. She has such beautiful markings.


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## Heidi n Q

Perhaps more info than you cared to have, but here is what I can tell about her genetic makeup.

She is a black-based cat. She carries the Mackerel tabby pattern. She'll probably need to mature into her adult coat before we could determine if she is striped, broken striped or spotted Mackerel. She carries the agouti gene, which is the gene required for black-based cats to exhibit their tabby pattern. She is also dense (full color) and long haired.

I would absolutely LOVE to see pics of her as she grows and matures.
h


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## kwarendorf

I'm not a breeder but it looks like she is part _*I'm the Boss*_ with more than a little bit of *You will do my Bidding*


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## Alpaca

Oh Heidi, that is most certainly the kind of info I'm looking for! That's pretty detailed! Thanks! 

Yeah, at first I could tell she is a mackerel tabby (but I was secretly hoping she was a wildcat hybrid. tee hee!). The people at the animal shelter and also at the vet have labelled her as a domestic medium hair. 

But yes, I just love the black patterns. My mother calls her 'Black Pantyhose'. When you see her walk from behind, it looks like she's wearing black stockings. I didn't notice the black dorsal stripe until recently though, it's very nice looking.

I'll definitely post more pics as she grows!


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## Heidi n Q

One of my favorite things about Tabbies is their "eye liner", both the paler colored fur around their eyes and the stripes sweeping back from their outer eye corners and cheeks. I also love how they gradate in color from dark along the topline to pale belly-fur.


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## Alpaca

I'm not sure Miu has black eyeliner. But I'll see next time I look at her. Her black markings appear to be more defined and darker now. I'm anxious to see what she'll look like when she grows up!


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## Heidi n Q

I think she would have both the dark and pale eye liner. Tabby cats usually do, it is only the kitties with white face markings (_where the white markings touch or cover the eye_) that don't have the eye liner colors. Anyhow, tabby kitties usually have dark 'rings' around their eyes on their eyelids. Then they have some paler fur that sort of accentuates the eye shape. The sweeping eyeliner (_I can see it in Miu's pics_) is the tabby stripe that starts at the outer corner of the eye and sweeps back in a curving line over the cheek area.


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## Alpaca

Hi Heidi..just got some better pics for you to look at her markings.

Her stomach
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w62/ ... oto004.jpg

Side view
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w62/ ... oto006.jpg

Face view - she looks evil here!
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w62/ ... oto007.jpg


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## Heidi n Q

Great photos! They made me want to rub her tummy. Does she like to have her tummy rubbed? From the side pic I think she is a broken striped Mack. See in the center of her ribs how the stripes appear to be a non-continuous line? ...and her face pic is *_adorable_*! I think she looks sweet and like she is smiling because she is happy and content.  
ps...I have the exact same cat-cube! :lol:


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## Alpaca

Hey Heidi. Tee Hee. I try not to touch her too much as I didn't want to run the risk of over-stimulating her. But it's hard to resist! 

Smiling? I thought she looked like she was hatching a plot to take over the world! 

Ah, non-continuous line. Ok. That's good, now I have an idea of what she is. Thanks!!


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## Heidi n Q

Well OF COURSE she's gonna take over the world! Her sweet expression is simply to lure us into her dark and devious trap. :wink


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## Alpaca

This is Miu now at 8 months. Heidi, you still have the same answers?


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## Heidi n Q

Alpaca said:


> This is Miu now at 8 months. Heidi, you still have the same answers?


Sorry, I'm deaf and can't see her pictures. You're just gonna have to send her to my house. I may need to keep her for a good long while, so I can properly study her furcoat, you understand? Don't worry, I'll love her, feed her and pet her fur every day.

Oh, she is _beautiful_. :luv I really love her floofy tail. Her Mackerel markings ... I'm still thinking they are either striped or broken-striped. Her long hair makes it hard to see, but I think I'll lean towards broken-striped.


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## Alpaca

Haha Heidi...noooo, she's MY baby!

Oh yeah, you're right. I'm going to have to get a pic where she's all laid out for u to see the stripes clearer. It's hard to photograph a moving cat.  Yes her tail is SOO puffy, good thing she lets me brush it. Tee Hee! Are the following traits common or distinctive in tabbys? The bushy black ringed tail, the black dorsal stripe, and black 'stockings' on her hind legs (gotta get a good shot of that.).


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## Heidi n Q

So you're sending her to me, right? Good. I'll keep an eye out for the package. I think those characteristics are typical of tabbies. Well, the markings, anyways. 

Tabbies usually do have a dark dorsal strip over the spine, though it can vary in width; usually being wider in long-haired cats, but it is variable so short-hairs could also have a wide dorsal. 

The poofy tail is a genetic thing and I wonder if it is influenced by undercoat. 
Our Squirrely-Jo's tail is *always* poofy, all the way around. She also has a dense undercoat and a lot of 'wiry' hairs mixed into her coat, and I feel it is that which makes her fur stand out so much from her body. Sort of like a girl with a tight perm or frizzies. 
Floofy and Shasta's tails have longer guard-hairs that wave and sway as they move. Their tails only look poofy like S-Jo's when they fuzz-up over something. 
Shadow's tail reminds me of a feather, and I'll call her Pluma (feather, in Spanish). She also has long guard hairs that sway and wave, but when she lifts her tail, it seems to be in a point, has shorter hair on the underside which makes her tail sort of floof out to the sides and with the long hairs swaying and waving, it just looks like a feather to me.

I've also noticed differences in the tails of short-haired cats. Malibu, BooBoo and Skippyjon all have what I would call 'thick' tails while Louie's tail is whip-thin. Pretty's tail is somewhere in between the two. Again, I'll attribute this to undercoat affecting how close the hair lays to the body.

I've noticed all my tabbies w/out white markings, have black feet and black up to their heels in the back. Since you called them stockings, now I'm going to think that too, whenever I see the backs of their feet.  I would call Louie my black-footed-ferret. :wink: 

I love tabbies. They may look the same, but they are each unique and their patterns and markings are all their own. Did you know how wildlife experts would identify large numbers of individual lions? They took photos of their muzzles ... whisker placement is as individual as our fingerprints. Of course, they also noted scars and such, _similar to prisons listing tatts_, for identification purposes.


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## dragynflye

she is beautiful! of course, i could be biased because she looks just like my childhood cat, tenner. of course, tenner is nearly 15 years old now, and is starting to look like a scraggly old lady!


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## Alpaca

Heidi, I love the information. Thanks! It's fun to learn so much. I used to think tabbies were not unique like a dime a dozen. As soon as my mother saw Miu she's like pft, she's a 'common cat'. However, I don't care if she is or not. Miu is still my baby! However, you can have her when she's being naughty! :twisted: 

Well, when I got her, the shelter said she is a domestic medium hair. But you're said she's a domestic long hair. I think so too. Her dorsal stripe is pretty wide. Takes up about 2/3 of her back in width.

I noticed especially in the sun that Miu has noticeably longer guard hairs that stick out a lot from the coat. I think it looks odd.

I was asking about the tail because sometimes it looks a out of proportion with the rest of the body. It can look pretty huge and puffed out especially after grooming.

I LOVE the black stockings. When you watch her walk from the back, she reminds you of a sexay lady walking in black stockings in heels because she sways side to side as she walks. HAHA. For some reason, I just love them. It looks pretty cool.

I'll have to take a more detailed look at her muzzle next time. I never paid attention to that before.


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## hoofmaiden

The great thing about tabbies is that while they all have the same basic markings (M on head, necklace and bracelets, dorsal stripe), they are expressed in individual ways on each kitty. I've lived with 4 tabbies now and they could have been more different from each other. 

And Miu is LOVELY!


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## Heidi n Q

The guard hairs do look kinda 'funny', they are so random, but IME, it is just one of the signs of a cat with a longhair coat. Many vet offices classify cats as DSH, DMH and DLH, but genetically there is only short hair (LL) and long hair (ll). _There is no genetic medium, though there are other factors that govern and affect longhair placement over the cat's body._ Cats with Ll are still short haired. Long hair (ll) means anything longer than short hair, and it can vary. Short hair is about an inch in length and long hair can be anywhere from 2" and up to 5". I'd say vets visually classify anything from 1.5" to 2-3" as medium.


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## Alpaca

@Heidi: Yes, I think the guard hairs are about 2"-2.5". They just stick out from the rest of the coat like er..like long stemmed wild flowers amongst grass? hahah. Couldn't think of a better description.

@Hoof: Yeps, I never thought of that. I kept on seeing the M on the forehead and the stripes thinking they all look the same. You just have to look closer to see the differences. Miu says thank you for the compliment!

My mother thinks she looks like a wild cat, a lynx, especially with the ear tufts and the tail. Haha!


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## Heidi n Q

:lol: Your flower-stem-over-the-grass description was purrfect! :lol:


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## Alpaca

You know. After reading up a bit and seeing some pics, I'm starting to suspect Miu has some Maine **** blood in her. The CFA breed standard says Maine Coons can have a mackeral tabby pattern. She had those ear tufts (although now they don't look so exaggerated because her head got bigger...haha).

Her temperament is almost exactly like this description:

While Maine Coons are highly people-oriented cats, they are not overly-dependent. They do not constantly pester you for attention, but prefer to "hang out" with their owners, investigating whatever activity you're involved in and "helping" when they can. They are not, as a general rule, known as "lap cats" but as with any personality trait there are a few Maine Coons that prefer laps. Most Maine Coons will stay close by, probably occupying the chair next to yours instead. Maines will follow you from room to room and wait outside a closed door for you to emerge. A Maine **** will be your companion, your buddy, your pal, but hardly ever your baby.

The fact that she seems to love water. She drinks a lot of it for a cat and she was totally unperturbed when I used to use a water bottle to spray her when she was being naughty.

She also has a ring of fur around her neck now. 

She's smart, playful and silly (well, that could be from being a kitten.. haha) as said on this site:
http://cat-breeds.suite101.com/article.cfm/maine_coon_cats

I think she kinda looks like the first cat at this site:
http://www.rivercatsmainecoons.com/


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