Long hair/short hair?

I was just reading "The Encyclopedia of the Cat" looking for some description of Butzie. Found something under random breeds, shorthair. I see a "Brown, Classic Tabby and White." Butzie is a "tiger tabby" but has much more white than the picture.
There is also a picture under the same title called ""Tortoiseshell and White." What I found interesting is that the short hair cats have really little tails. Butzie's tail is really big and fluffy like the ""Tortoiseshell." The description says "Without selective breeding, polygenic (don't you just love that word?) factors have a large influence on coat: this cat's plummy tail might indicate that it is genetically a longhair, even though the coat on its body remains short and soft even in winter."

Anybody else have such a cat? She is so pretty. The vet classified her as a medium hair tiger tabby with white markings.

My cat Sam (when I was little), was white and basically short haired, but he had a big plumed tail and poofed feet and ears. He was very pretty and always carried the tail high and confident like a flag.

Tiger tabby is Mackeral tabby, that and Tortoiseshell are coat patterns not breeds.

If your cat has a fluffy tail, perhaps she's actually a medium hair and not short hair. I believe you usually go on tail fur length.

Originally Posted by missymotus

Tiger tabby is Mackeral tabby, that and Tortoiseshell are coat patterns not breeds.

If your cat has a fluffy tail, perhaps she's actually a medium hair and not short hair. I believe you usually go on tail fur length.

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Bitzie is a brown mac tabby and white. And I concur on the medium (or semi long) if the tail is fluffy/long.

IMO there are 4 hair lengths - (1) no hair/rex hair (2) shorthair (3)medium hair (4)long hair.

The sphynx, corish/devon rex would be in group 1. The ASH, BSH, Abys, Ocicats, Burmese, etc. would be in group 2. Group 3 would be balinese, somali, turkish angora, maine coon. And the last group would be your persians, himalayans, Norwegian Forest Cats, etc.

Many cats with some longhair background probably would be medium hair with a fluffy tail, little long on the belly, maybe a small amount of ruff but the body hair would be shorter. Its sometimes hard to guess in mixed breed cats what they really will end up as adults

For show purposes they are either long or short hair, and a cat with a fluffy tail and shorter body coat, would be considered "longhair".

Thanks, everyone. Makes me appreciate my vet more because she described Butzie as medium hair.