Читать книгу 77 Things to Know Before Getting a Cat - Susan Ewing M. - Страница 10

Colors in cats are almost as mysterious as the cat itself. To make things even more interesting, different breeds have different names for the same colors. Add different patterns into the mix, and you have an almost infinite variety.

The cat’s basic colors are black, red, and brown. Red may be called “flame,” and black is described as “ebony” in some breed standards. From the basics, you get into dilute shades and all of their hues. Blue is a dilute color of black. Indigo is a dark blue or gray, and lavender and lilac are the same: a soft pinkish-gray.

A silver cat in a tabby pattern.

Abyssinian cats display a ticked tabby pattern.

Patterns include solid, tabby, pointed, piebald, and van, but it’s not that simple. For instance, in the van pattern, the cat is white with a colored tail, color over the ears and top of the head, and possibly a spot of color on the back. The colored fur can be a solid color or in a tabby pattern.

There are four tabby patterns: mackerel, classic, spotted, and ticked, all of which have a mark on the forehead resembling an “M.” The mackerel tabby is the most common, with narrow stripes of a darker color on a slightly lighter background and dark bands on the legs and tail. The classic tabby has more of a bull’s-eye pattern on the sides and a dark center stripe along the spine as well as the dark bands on the legs and tail.

A ticked tabby pattern lacks the stripes of the mackerel and classic and has hairs with distinct bands of color on them. These agouti hairs give a textured look of light and dark to the coat. The Abyssinian is an example of a ticked tabby.

X FACTOR

Both tortoiseshell and calico (black and red on white) cats are generally female because the X chromosome carries the calico factor.

In the spotted tabby pattern, the stripes are broken up to look like spots. The Bengal, Ocicat, and Egyptian Mau are examples of this kind of pattern.

Pointed, or colorpoint, cats include the Siamese, Burmese, Himalayan, and Ragdoll. True colorpoint cats always have blue eyes. According to the Cat Fanciers Association, Siamese cats may have seal (almost black), chocolate (warm brown), blue (slate blue), and lilac (pinkish-gray); the International Cat Association additionally recognizes red, cream, and tabby points.

In all colorpoint cats, the color is the result of a gene that inhibits pigment. This gene is affected by temperature; the dark color comes out on the cooler body areas, like the tail, face, and legs. As a pointed cat ages, the skin temperature cools and the body darkens.

Piebald cats have two or more distinct colors, generally on a white background. Tortoiseshell cats, or “torties,” are cats whose fur combines two colors other than white, usually black and red or the dilute variations of these colors. Our neighbor’s beautiful tortie would be described as lavender/lilac and cream. If the tabby pattern is also in evidence, the cat is called a “torbie.”

Colors vary according to registry and can be put together into many combinations. For example, the American Cat Fanciers Association lists thirty-nine possible color combinations plus “and white” and “van-colored” for the American Shorthair, which includes fifteen tabby variations, such as brown, blue, cameo, golden, and silver. Besides the standard black, blue, red and cream, there’s also chinchilla, cameo, blue smoke, black smoke, and blue cream smoke.

The classic tortoiseshell colors are black and red.

DID YOU KNOW?

A “mitted” cat has four white feet.

A green-eyed beauty.

Other cats may be cinnamon, or amber, or fawn. And these are just coat colors. Cats’ eyes may be blue, copper, green, gold, or brown, or a cat may have eyes of two different colors. This can occur in any breed, but is frequently seen in the Turkish Angora, Turkish Van, and Japanese Bobtail.

If you want to study all of the various permutations of color in cats, the Messy Beast’s color charts (www.messybeast.com/colour-charts.htm) are a great place to start. If you’re trying to identify the colors of a specific breed, check the colors listed in the breed descriptions set forth by the various cat registries. Color descriptions may vary between registries, and different countries may also have different names for the colors.

The name of the color matters only if you are registering a pedigreed cat or entering a cat show with a breed in which there are color divisions; otherwise, it doesn’t matter whether you call your cat gray or smoke or lilac. Your cat won’t care, and because you love your cat, you won’t care either.