# A Question of Colour



## Arianwen (Jun 3, 2012)

Over the years I have had cats of many colours but not previously had one like one of those I have now.

In most photos and from a distance, Becky looks black. Closer, you can see that she actually has tabby stripes - so is pretty much black with mainly dark grey. When you move her fur, however, the first half at least of each hair is frosty white. There is a tiny spot of pale grey and then the dark tips. 

Has anyone else come across this particular colouration?


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## Jetlaya67 (Sep 26, 2012)

I think it is called a smoke. I thought smoke was grey but then i looked it up and it was cats with white undercoat and black tips. There is one in my neighborhood and it kind of freaked me out first time I saw her, I thought there was something wrong, but no it is just her coloring. They are pretty interesting, now I like it.


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## Arianwen (Jun 3, 2012)

That's interesting - I'd never heard of a smoke.


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## NebraskaCat (Jan 15, 2013)

Arianwen said:


> Has anyone else come across this particular colouration?


Yes, we had a cat exactly how you describe come to the shelter last year. She appeared black, but up close you could vaguely make out a shadowy tabby stripe to her coat. But if you ran your hand "upstream" (petting her backwards) you could see the silver or light gray at the base of many of the hairs. I agree that I think this is referred to as smoke.


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## Carmel (Nov 23, 2010)

Out of ~700 cats at the sanctuary I know of about 5 that are smoke. It looks very cool.

Here's one:


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## maewkaew (Jun 27, 2012)

Yep , that is a Black Smoke! It is very cool. It comes from a gene called the Inhibitor Gene ( because it inhibits the pigment on part of the hair.) 
It is the same gene that is also involved in Silver Tabby, Chinchilla and Shaded ( and the Red-based version "Cameo") .


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## Spid (Dec 23, 2011)

This is my black smoke - they are a gorgeous colour aren't they? Being long haired you can really see the silver (smoke) in her - she has rather a high level of silver, but all smokes are called smoke no matter how much silver they have along the hair shaft, whereas tabby cats with silver have different descriptions for the amount of silver they have.


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