What exactly is Top Cat? (coat and color question)

Despite what it sounds like, this is not one of those 'what breed is he' questions. I already know (and try to persuade people who keep trying to call him a siamese) that he is a 'mutt'.

Now I have questions about his coat and color. Can't tell if his coat is just a plushy shorthair or a medium hair. It looks more short from a far, but up close you can tell he has quite some fluffiness. His coat has a really soft and thick cotton texture.

As for his color, he has obvious red points on his head and tail, but the color on his feet is questionable. Not only is the color lacking on the top of his feet, but underneath it is coming in quite unevenly (a bit blotchy maybe).

I want to enter him in the July show in Raleigh (TICA), but I still don't know what to put down for him.

pics from last weekend

It's possible he's a mitted flame point, hair length is difficult until the adult coat comes in, but I'd say he's a shorthair and the cutest little pointed moggie

Originally Posted by Arlyn

It's possible he's a mitted flame point, hair length is difficult until the adult coat comes in, but I'd say he's a shorthair and the cutest little pointed moggie

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you reminded me... if it helps his mother appeared to be a medium hair (same coat texture), however I only saw her for a few minutes since we had to leave quickly (my uncle snuck us in after closing and they really weren't supposed to have people in the store then)

I would call him a Red Point for the color. There may be a possibility of him being a Red Lynx Point (with tabby markings eventually). Red points tend to be very slow to show - could take a year to develop the color on the points. Also if the kitten is a Red Point and White - that may account for the fact his color is not on his feet very much.

He would be considered a short hair. He may wind up with a little longer or thicker coat as an adult (kinda plushy) but more of a short hair then a long hair.

ha, this would be the second time then I've sucked myself into getting a plushy shorthair (both times I wanted a longhair). But he's still beautiful at least in my eyes.

I really think I forget that their first bath makes all the difference.

More power to you for wanting a long hair cat. I don't have the time or patience to be combing longhair cats every day. I got spoiled by Cornish Rex and Ocicats - my "wash and wear" cats.....

I think Top Cat is adorable - you can pass him to me any time....lol

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

More power to you for wanting a long hair cat. I don't have the time or patience to be combing longhair cats every day. I got spoiled by Cornish Rex and Ocicats - my "wash and wear" cats.....

I think Top Cat is adorable - you can pass him to me any time....lol

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um, I didn't say I didn't want him anymore

nice try

oh and by the way, I was thinking of an official show name for him: Top Cat Creamsicle Edition

or does anybody else have any better suggestions

IMO Red Lynx point. Of course you could be a bit more daring and call him a red tabby van bicolor! Actually now that I look at the pictures more - I am leaning towards red tabby and white - there appears to be splashes of red on his body coat...especially in the 1st and 3rd picture.

what about his eyes? they are still blue and don't appear to be changing. Wouldn't he have to be genetically pointed?


No matter what, he is growing up beautiful.

I would call him red, not a lynx point.

I was going to ask did you mean Top coat not top cat it wasn't until after I'd typed a response I realised it was his name...

But if he is pointed and white and the white is masking most of the lynx tabby points (head/feet), he would be a red lynx point. The tail is pretty stripey for a red - I know reds and red tabbies are hard to tell apart - and since we have little to go by, its a toss up.

Star, do you know what color the parents are - if one of them is a tabby (or if there were tabby littermates) then I would be inclined to call him a Red Lynx Point.

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

But if he is pointed and white and the white is masking most of the lynx tabby points (head/feet), he would be a red lynx point. The tail is pretty stripey for a red - I know reds and red tabbies are hard to tell apart - and since we have little to go by, its a toss up.

Star, do you know what color the parents are - if one of them is a tabby (or if there were tabby littermates) then I would be inclined to call him a Red Lynx Point.

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since his litter was abandoned in front of the pet store, I was only able to meet the mom. The mom and all the rest of his siblings were solid white. From what I read about color genetics, his mom probably was a red or tortie point, simply with the white masking gene. He's the only one with color, so it's hard for me to get a better idea on what colors she was carrying.

Darn - that's no help at all! We may never know now. Willing to bet the judges at the show will be split too on what he really is.

The markings he has so far suggest red tabby point, unfortunately it's impossible to tell from the photos whether he also has the white spotting gene (which could have been masked in the mother by the dominant white, or his father could have had white spotting) - although you can sometimes see some obvious white on the mask and paws with young bicolour-colourpoints, there should be a slight difference in colour tone between the pale cream of most of his coat and the stark white of any white patches.

If you can't see any obvious distinction on his paws making them white rather than a pale cream colour, I would enter him as red tabby* point DSH - if white mitts become apparent before the show you can always call the show secretary and change his description to red tabby point & white - colour class is not so crucial in the non-pedigree classes and you'd be very unlikely to get in trouble for getting it wrong with a kitten that age given that he has yet to develop his full colour!

*some countries call tabby point cats lynx point so amend as necessary!

Yeah, we usually call them Lynx Points rather then Tabby Points.

With our Ragdolls - The reds have ghost striping that resembles Lynx but there is no Lynx in them. One thing we do to confirm pattern is wet the feet and go outside and look at them in the sun. It will help to confirm if the feet are going to have mitts or if they are colorpoint. Beautiful kitten - I hope you do well.