Page 200 - The Complete Cat Breed Book (DK)

198 C A T AL OG OF BREED S

HOUSE CAT—LONGHAIR

REGARDLESS OF THEIR ANCESTRY, THESE CATS HAVE UNDENIABLE GLAMOUR

Non-pedigree cats with long hair are less common than
their shorthaired counterparts. In some of them, the clues
to their origins are obvious. A dense, woolly undercoat,
stocky body, and a round, flattened face are likely to be
inherited from a Persian. The ancestry of others remains
a mystery in a confusion of variable coat lengths,
mixed colors, and indeterminate patterns.
Longhaired house cats rarely have the
extravagantly thick coats seen in the show
ring, but many of them are very beautiful.
BROWN TABBY
Long fur tends to blur tabby patterning. This cat
has a semilong coat marked with the pattern
known as classic tabby, which on a shorter coat
would appear as boldly defined, dark whorls.
Faint tabby
markings

Greenish-gold
eyes
Brownish
tinge to ruff

CREAM AND WHITE BLACK
Cream—a diluted form of red—is an unusual Jet black was among
color in the average house cat. This one has the first colors to be
ghost tabby markings, which cat fanciers try popular in longhairs. In random-
to eliminate in pedigrees by breeding bred cats there are likely to be slight Thick, medium-
only the very palest creams. tinges of brown or tabby pattern in the coat. long hair on body

RED AND Round face SILVER AND WHITE
WHITE TABBY suggests Rarely seen in the
Persian
Most owners of a influence domestic house cat,
red tabby are likely silver is the effect of a
to refer to their pet white coat tipped with
as a ginger cat. darker color at the end
This color is highly of each hair. Depending
sought after and on their degree of
can often be just tipping, pedigree silver
as deep and rich cats are sometimes
in non-pedigree known as chinchillas.
cats as it is in
purebreds.