Have you ever seen a kitten like this one?

Hi all! This is my debut. This kitten is one of five born to a very young, stray tiger tabby (I know-not a breed!). I'm honored that "momma" chose my detached and unheated garage-which is too full of junk to park a car in-as a refuge for her little ones. It's winter here, so after a getting-to-know-you period, I moved them all into a heated porch which communicates with a bedroom. The porch has a pet door which, by now, some five weeks post kitten-discovery, they've all mastered. They now occupy the bedroom too, much to the chagrin of its former occupant-an elderly orange tabby. This little female's four siblings all resemble their mother, but none is without white areas which momma lacks; she's mackerel tabby through and through. Of course, it's a long-and, to me, interesting and educational-story. I'm happy to share it with any who are the least bit interested. What brought me here was a desire to know if anyone has ever seen a kitten like this. I assume she qualifies as a colorpoint. As an aside, my introduction to momma was an unexpected and confrontational one-I picked up one of the kittens which was in the process of clumsily scaling the yard fence (six-foot-high cedar picket). The kitten let out a blood-curdling squeal, found a vein in one finger with needle-sharp teeth, and carved its signature into my palm with surprisingly sharp claws. I dropped the kitten reflexively, but, by then, momma (Hello. How do you do? Pleased to meet you!), who, unbeknownst to me, had been hunting squirrels in the neighbor's yard, had come boiling over the fence and launched herself against my legs and chest. Yes, Virginia, mother cats really ARE protective of their young; and yes, Virginia, wild momma cats really DO have sharp claws! Thanks for your indulgence.

Hi and welcome to the site

You certainly do have a little beauty there ! :heart3:

She would be classed as a beautiful seal lynx point bicolor

Seal = brown ( in colorpoint's brown is called seal )
Lynx = tabby pattern
Point = colorpoint pattern
Bicolor = with white

Basically broken down it means she is a brown tabby with the point pattern and white.

You are right she does have the colorpoint pattern, but she also has white spotting gene too.

Cats with a colorpoint pattern have darker extremities to their body color. Eg darker legs, face and tail with lighter body color.
But if you add in the white spotting gene, you can then get mitted - which is a small amount of white showing just on feet and chest.
To larger amounts of white called bicolor - which produces all white legs, chest and white V to the face. Just like your pretty girl

Beautiful kitten , reminds me of one of those Husky Dogs with blue eyes

Thank you, GemsGem, for your comments and the tutorial. Now I'm much closer to being an expert in coat color classification...seriously. Thanks also for the compliment. This kitten lacks the dark face seen in most colorpoints, doesn't she? Also, her legs and toes are "white" (cream?)-as is her underbody-except for dark areas on the upper back of both her hind legs. She also has muted barring, of the tabby variety, on the left front leg only; you can see it peeking around the corner in the photo. The "white" is not sharply demarcated from the "lighter" coloration of the upper body, which tends to be darker along the back and is not solid; One shade blends into another. Might we say she's well blended. Her face is a bit fox-like. I've been advised that it, and her coat color generally, will likely become much darker as she ages.

The rules and terminogy of classification are a bit confusing to me. Are you saying she's a bicolor colorpoint or just a bicolor? The lynx designation I can understand. I won't argue with seal; I assume there are some breeds of seal which are actually brown or chocolately. I was thinking van dyke brown, which is a kind of blue brown, until I looked closely, then decided not brown after all; more of a dark grey. Thank God...or Polaroid...or Galaxy s3 we have photos, and, of course, we all perceive alike.

I'm so glad you weighed in. I feel we are getting very, very close to a proper classification.

Glad to be of help

She is both a colorpoint and a bicolor.

That's why she lacks the dark face legs and feet, the white color from the bicolor is masking the darker color in these places.

If you could remove all the white color from her, she would then have the dark face legs and feet just like a traditional colorpoint.

Here's a pic of a seal lynx point bicolor Ragdoll - see how it looks very similar to your girl

OK...got it! I ran across a pic of a Ragdoll while searching for a lookalike; thought it came close to matching my SEAL LYNX POINT BICOLOR (SLPB for short). Should I call her sloppy or slippy?

I'm so glad I found you! No way to guess the "breed" or color pattern of the father? Not breeding material? No point in pursuing genetic profile? Why isn't mackerel tabby dominant? A million questions; I'll keep reading...oh, are you aware of any cases of autism in cats?

Merlin2000 said:

Beautiful kitten , reminds me of one of those Husky Dogs with blue eyes :catguy:

Click to expand...

Merlin2000 said:

Beautiful kitten , reminds me of one of those Husky Dogs with blue eyes :catguy:

Click to expand...

Yes, Merlin2000, that's what she reminds me of...watching her she looks more like a puppy than a cat...is less playful and active than the others, except for her buddy, a wild-looking little guy-the smallest of the litter-who often plays by himself and continues to be skittish. She is the largest, so they are mutt and jeff. Thanks for your post and the compliment. Stay warm.