Feral Dilute Torbie Recently Adopted

Thank you StefanZ and thank you all for your replies and expertise on what type of coat Emma has. The consensus seems to be that she is a Silver shaded tabby. She does seem to be a shorthair to me and the hair lying on top of her is silver-grey and if you pet her hair backwards, it's all white underneath. Here is just a few more pictures of Emma

You are lucky to have such a beautiful cat.

Good heavens!  Has our girl turned back into a torbie?     No wonder people were confused.   

She has an absolutely gorgeous coat.  

Thank you! Yes I think she has a gorgeous coat too! I understand why StefanZ thinks her coat type is a shaded silver tabby and not a dilute torbie. I'm still not sure myself what she really is. Perhaps she is both (laughs). I think it'the lighting in my condo and sometimes when I take pictures of her in a lighted area you just see the silver on her. In a darker area you see more stripes on her side but not a lot of them. I sometimes see little spots of brown on her back but they're hard to see. Then she has a black stripe going down her back to her tail (does that mean her fur is ticked. Right now I'm thinking she is a dilute (blue-cream) torbie, but who really knows I love her anyway! Here are a few more pictures of Emma.

Emma is such a beautiful girl!  And unique, too.  Give her a kiss from me! 

Here are more pictures of My feral cat, Emma. I think StefanZ is right about her being a shaded silver tabby because she has a white undercoat where originally I thought she was a dilute torbie. She does have some small hints(hard to see) of brown or red on her back. Is her hair ticked? Whatever coat type she has I love her. She sits on my lap, comes out for food, but runs away from me when I'm walking around. I think it just takes a lot if time and patience when you have a feral cat

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Emma is really a beautiful girl - I just love her coat.  You're right about needing patience but if she's sitting on your lap, you're making great progress. 

Margd is right.  You're doing fine with her.  It's very early days yet, in a cat's eye view of things.  One of the things I love about cats is that, while they are slow to trust, once it is given, it is given utterly. And, she is a former feral, so humans aren't natural to her.  Once she KNOWS, she'll be utterly yours. That said, they are very aware of their own dignity, and it is not to be trifled with.  When I try to check Hekitty's teeth, you'd think I had beaten her daily for years.  An hour or so later, all is forgiven, but I do get shunned for a while!

Are there other coat-types or breeds of cats like Egyptian Maus that just have color on the top of their fur? I know my cat is not an Egyptian Mau because she doesn't have spots but if I pet her hair backwards its all white underneath. It's just the top that is colored silver or black.

Dilute Torbie

She is a beauty and you are her angel for bringing her into your family!

I have to say I'm having a hard time believing she was feral. Even if the rescue had done extensive socialization, a true feral would not adjust so quickly to a new home. It may feel like a long time to you, but it really isn't. Did the rescue tell you just how long they knew she'd been "wild"? There are many strays that were dumped and became on the feral side, but they are more likely be quicker to revert back to domestic. I'm only asking all of this because I am interested in knowing about feral vs stray, emphasis on feral. I have had two true ferals and several you would think were feral but weren't.

Hi KSKatt, Thank you for your reply.  I've had Emma since mid-March.  Paws brought her to a cattery to socialize her. One woman was working with her there for about 6 months.  She also volunteers at Paws.  Emma hid under my bed for at least 3 weeks when I first got her, and then later started coming out at night to explore.  The only time she came out from under the bed during the day is when I would feed her or when she needed to use the cat box, but then she went right back under the bed. She still runs away from me when I walk by her.  I have learned not to make direct eye contact because she perceives that as a threat.  She will jump on my lap or join me on the bed but I have to be completely still. If I reach for my remote control she jumps off of me, or if I'm about to cough she jumps off of me.  I also have another kitty who's 10 or 12 years older than she is, and they're starting to get along now, and maybe that's helped her out as well.  I lead a pretty quiet life and never really have anybody come over.  I don't listen to music in the house, only in my car.  I think that's why she's learning to adapt a little bit faster to her surroundings because there is not a lot going on here.  She is strictly an indoor cat.  I do watch a lot of TV, and she sometimes scared of my TV and backs up then runs away after she looks at it, and I don't even have surround sound. 


They told me she was feral at Paws where I adopted her.  They also said she had three kittens and they were all adopted.  She was spayed after that. Apparently someone else was interested in her and threw a towel over her when he tried to take her, and they told him he couldn't take the cat after all because of that, and it set the cat back again for awhile where she was scared of everybody so it took another few weeks to re-socialize her.  They also brought her to a different Paws because they didn't want the same  guy to come back and get her and that's how I found her at the Paws near me.  I've had other stray cats before and they were never as scared like she is.  I really think she was a feral Kitty before.  She is a joy and I'm glad I adopted her. I don't regret my decision on taking her. Tyler and her are not buddy-buddy yet, but they do play with each other and chase each other around the condo, and they take turns doing that.  I will be patient for as long as it takes.  My cats are my life!