# Confusion about shorhairs



## bluemilk (Oct 3, 2005)

In many domestic shorthaired-including mine-the fur's actually a little long!


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## DeafDogs&Cat (Mar 27, 2013)

on the vet papers I got with my cat, they called him a Domestic Mediumhair. I didn't even know that was a possibility


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

Technically, you're going to have _experts_ tell you there's no medium hair classification, but clearly, in real life, it does exist. Cali and Charlee are definitely not shorthaired kitties, but next to some cats, they're not longhaired, either.


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## NebraskaCat (Jan 15, 2013)

Both my cats are DSH, but Penny's hair is a good 1-1.5 inches longer than Nala's.

Yes, the geneticists among us will point out there's no medium hair gene, but sometimes the combination of the genes will result in all ranges of lengths.

When writing a description for a cat at our shelter, we don't get out a tape measure. We just eyeball it and try to write something that will most clearly represent the cat.


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## Carmel (Nov 23, 2010)

The general population calls it as they see it and goes with short, medium and long haired domestics. Genetically, there is no medium hair gene... I think in the case of these cats, they have shorter long hair. But, maybe it's longer short hair? Since short hair is the dominate in the genetics... *shrugs* I think "medium" is a pretty good descriptive word for these cats.


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## DeafDogs&Cat (Mar 27, 2013)

Well, my boy has slightly longer hair on his body than a typical shorthair, but his tailhair is longish... though I would have considered him a shorthair, until I saw his vet records LOL. But then, some vets will put labradoodle on records too, so we know they're not all that accurate


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