My Toby cat's ancestors...?

Hi everyone,

My name is Alicia. I just joined the site today but was hoping I could pick your knowledgeable brains a bit about my cat, Toby. This a long/picture heavy post... I've never been the best at brevity ^^;;

So, last year in late November, I found a kitten on my way to work... on my bike... in Japan. Long story short, I ended up bringing him back to the US at Christmas to live with my parents until I moved home this summer. I've always thought he was beautiful but other family members, friends, and our vet have all commented on his beautiful markings and how soft he is, which has me curious about what makes him different from the other cats we've had over the years. Well, beyond the fact that our other cats have all shown up within 30 miles of my hometown in NC... and I had to fly him across an ocean, ahaha!

These first few pictures of him being super cute are from a month ago and don't involve a flash.


Chubbo! (He was heavier here than he is now ^^)


He's so funny; he sleeps in the strangest positions! He also prefers to have his head squished up against something.

From here on out, the pictures were taken earlier this evening. I had to use the flash on these pictures because our lighting is horribly dim, but hopefully he isn't too washed out....


He loves his little catnip mouse!




He definitely has the tabby markings... so is he a mackerel and white? Some of his stripes are broken though... does that make him spotted? He also has lynx tips, though they aren't super long. A friend of the family thought maybe he was Maine Coon, what with his size and patterns. He isn't a long haired cat.. but maybe there is some Maine Coon somewhere down his line...? It just seems a little odd, considering I found him in a small Japanese town!

He is probably the softest and silkiest cat I've owned. His white fur is especially silky and it's longer than his colored coat. I love his colors, but I'm of course biased :-)

He has golden ticking (I guess? It looks gold to me!) and I see browns/oranges in his coat too.



So, what do y'all see? If anyone has any insight into his background, I'd love to hear what you think.

If you want to see anything closer up, let me know and I can snap some more pictures.


Toby has decided this was more than enough picture taking for one evening.. the outoodrs is far more exciting than the kitchen/living room! :-D

Thank you all for any comments/thoughts in advance.

OreoFan said:

 
He definitely has the tabby markings... so is he a mackerel and white? Some of his stripes are broken though... does that make him spotted? He also has lynx tips, though they aren't super long. A friend of the family thought maybe he was Maine Coon, what with his size and patterns. He isn't a long haired cat.. but maybe there is some Maine Coon somewhere down his line...? It just seems a little odd, considering I found him in a small Japanese town!

He is probably the softest and silkiest cat I've owned. His white fur is especially silky and it's longer than his colored coat. I love his colors, but I'm of course biased :-)

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Yes, I think so.   The question is if these "broken stripes" on his behind, if they really shall not be counted as spots.  And possibly, in some associations, he would be counted as spotted.   I saw once on a swedish Fife forum, it was a classic tabby who had several spots on the tail.  And they agreed he should be counted as spotted...

He of course probably cant be a Maine Coon-descendant, coming from Japan.  Unless there were some American military base nearby or such...   Soldiers do have sometimes pets with them, if they are allowed.   And although they have right for the military vet services, they often dont bother to spay their pets as they should.   Or unless imported  MCO are popular in Japan.

Nay, the question is, what breeds are there in Japan.   I dunno.   You probably know more.

I know there is quite a common a sort of rounded cats.   So some of the japan comical stripes cats, arent rounded because  the author didnt bothered to paint them properly, but they are rounded because of a proper painting off....       (forgive my third-language-english, but I think you do understand anyway)

He is clearly not one of these.

The goldish color on his back.  The distinctive stripes becoming almost into spots on the behind.   The tail with it silvery end and clear stripes...

A not so usual collection, so to speak.

Lets hope others will chime in,  @Norachan   has Japan experiences she too.

Good luck!

ps.  If you can change the title to attract more knowleable people - add for example the words:  in Japan...

Hi,



He's a beautiful cat.　Can I ask what part of Japan you found him in? I take care of a colony of Japanese cats and I was interested to see that Toby seems to have a long straight tail. Most of the cats I know have either short bob tails or longer tails that are bent over at the tip. I very rarely see a perfect tail like Toby's.

I do have a couple of tabbies that have similar spotted markings to his. I'll try and get a couple of better photos to show you tomorrow, if this rain lets up.

StefanZ said:

Yes, I think so.   The question is if these "broken stripes" on his behind, if they really shall not be counted as spots.  And possibly, in some associations, he would be counted as spotted.   I saw once on a swedish Fife forum, it was a classic tabby who had several spots on the tail.  And they agreed he should be counted as spotted...




He of course probably cant be a Maine Coon-descendant, coming from Japan.  Unless there were some American military base nearby or such...   Soldiers do have sometimes pets with them, if they are allowed.   And although they have right for the military vet services, they often dont bother to spay their pets as they should.   Or unless imported  MCO are popular in Japan.



Nay, the question is, what breeds are there in Japan.   I dunno.   You probably know more.


I know there is quite a common a sort of rounded cats.   So some of the japan comical stripes cats, arent rounded because  the author didnt bothered to paint them properly, but they are rounded because of a proper painting off....       (forgive my third-language-english, but I think you do understand anyway)



He is clearly not one of these.



The goldish color on his back.  The distinctive stripes becoming almost into spots on the behind.   The tail with it silvery end and clear stripes...



A not so usual collection, so to speak.



Lets hope others will chime in,  @Norachan   has Japan experiences she too.




Good luck!




ps.  If you can change the title to attract more knowleable people - add for example the words:  in Japan...

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for replying! Yeah, I really don't think he has Maine Coon in him, despite his size ^^

Norachan said:

Hi,

He's a beautiful cat.　Can I ask what part of Japan you found him in? I take care of a colony of Japanese cats and I was interested to see that Toby seems to have a long straight tail. Most of the cats I know have either short bob tails or longer tails that are bent over at the tip. I very rarely see a perfect tail like Toby's.





I do have a couple of tabbies that have similar spotted markings to his. I'll try and get a couple of better photos to show you tomorrow, if this rain lets up.

Click to expand...

Hi Nora!

I found him in Shiga, Japan, so he's from the Kansai/Kinki region, about an hour north of Kyoto. Yeah, when I was looking for breeds that had a similar look I found a few Bobtails that had similar colors and face/ear shapes but he has a very normal tail soooo...

Aw, I'd love to see some pictures of your cats if you have a chance to take some :-)

Thank you for replying too!

I know Shiga, that's where Lake Biwa is, isn't it? OK, That's quite a long way inland and not the kind of place that has had a large foreign population for a long time. I thought if you'd found him in some place like Kobe or Yokohama there would be a chance that he, or his ancestors, had been brought over from another country.

Even though he has a long tail he could be carrying the bob-tail gene. You often get long tail and bob tail kittens in the same litter and the long tail cats can pass on the bob-tail trait to their kittens.

Here are a few pictures of cats that have similar colouring or spotted markings to Toby. These were all Japanese noraneko from Yamanashi, part of the colony I take care of. Maybe you've just been really lucky and found a very handsome stray cat.

I think its apparently the same type of  tabby -  seemingly rather conventional mackerel tabby, but becoming into nice spots on the hind parts...

The colors are somewhat different, but it may he another story.   The tabby- variation is apparently a japanese speciality - nora-neko?

Neko means cat, yes?, so Nora is the descriptive noun?

StefanZ said:

 
I think its apparently the same type of  tabby -  seemingly rather conventional mackerel tabby, but becoming into nice spots on the hind parts...

The colors are somewhat different, but it may he another story.   The tabby- variation is apparently a japanese speciality - nora-neko?

Neko means cat, yes?, so Nora is the descriptive noun?

Click to expand...

Nora means stray, or more accurately field.

I don't know if you'll be able to see the kanji for nora or not, but it looks like this. 野良 and the kanji for cat, neko,  looks like this 猫

When you put them together it reads Field Cat, I guess that's because in the past all the stray cats were out in the fields, hunting for mice.

My user name, Norachan, translates as The Little Stray Ones, which is what my neighbours used to call the stray cats they fed. I thought it was rather sweet. 

Norachan said:

 
Nora means stray, or more accurately field.

I don't know if you'll be able to see the kanji for nora or not, but it looks like this. 野良 and the kanji for cat, neko,  looks like this 猫

When you put them together it reads Field Cat, I guess that's because in the past all the stray cats were out in the fields, hunting for mice.

My user name, Norachan, translates as The Little Stray Ones, which is what my neighbours used to call the stray cats they fed. I thought it was rather sweet. 

Click to expand...

Yes, it is surely sweet - as I understand, chan is not just the diminutive  "little", but  it has a definitve shade of "loved" too...  You can for example call your favorite daughter for   Name-chan,  - I learned from Clavells Shogun.  

   ps.  This diminutive works very similiarly in German - and even sounds similiar "-chen".  In Polish too diminutives are usually used lovingly.

But not clear cut so in Swedish.

OK, I understand.  Field-cat.    Ie the common japanese non pedigree cat?   Or are there other native types too?  (I know there are these rounded body-type I mentioned earlier).     In Poland are their polish cousins called for  Roof cat.

In Sweden they are called for peasant cats.  Or rather, "ah just a common peasant cat".    Although the breed European is purebred from the typical peasant cats.