Siamese? Snowshoe?

The rescue group that I got Schroeder from called him a Snowshoe Siamese, but the paperwork from the shelter where the rescue group got him had him listed as a seal point Domestic Shorthair. Either way, he's adorable--just curious. He does seem rather big for his age. He is 6 months old and almost nine pounds. It's hard to tell from the picture, but he has some pretty big feet too.


This was him at 10 weeks. It's weird how much his coloring changed, especially his face. Even his little--um--"marbles" changed color--from cream to black! I won't show a picture of that though. [emoji]128569[/emoji]

Both descriptions are OK.  He is domestic, but He seems to be a nice look alike of a siamese old type.  the snowshoe was constructed with them as base.  so yes, he is even a decent look alike of a snowshoe siamese.

the mitted white part not perfect for a snowshoe, but fair enough.

As Stefan has noted, the Snowshoe breed is based in Siamese heritage, and in fact, Dorothy Hinds-Daugherty, who originated the breed, was one of the premiere Siamese breeders of the late 1950s and early 1960s.  The breed standards allow for some variability, since several of the point patterns are actually the result of recessive genes (the mask gene is carried separately from the usual pointing gene, and is an incomplete dominant, and interaction with the Piebald Gene), and in F¹ pairings when two copies of the gene are produced, the white "gloves," nose stripes and dots can be exaggerated, resulting in 'pet quality' Snowshoes.  Your beautiful Seal Point Snowshoe (currently, only Seal Points and Blue Points are recognised, though several well-known breeders are working toward and lobbying for the inclusion of Lynx, lilac and Chocolate Points)  actually shows very nice, neat front mittens.

The CFA Breed Standard may be found here:

http://www.acfacat.com/Breed Standards/SNOWSHOE.pdf\

though the Standard (originally written by Vikki Olander, who took over Ms.Hinds-Daugherty's "Silver Laces" breeding program) will undoubtedly be "fine tuned" in the near future (there's no current Breed Chairperson).

Snowshoes are rightly noted for their intelligence and their problem solving abilities.  The fact that every door and cabinet in my house has hook-and-eye closures is the direct result of my Snowshoe.  They can turn knobs, open doors, flip light switches (this they will do over and over, simply to watch the lights go on and off), and turn on water faucets (many Snowshoes have a strange obsessive relationship with water, and some use their water bowls as "hiding places" for their toys).  They like hiding, and will often open cabinets, climb in and then pull the door closed behind them, and when their nap is finished, will pretend they're trapped, screaming incessantly until you locate them and open the door behind which they're making those dreadful sounds.  One east coast breeder calls them, "the Leroy Brown of cats."

There are several other Snowshoes on TCS; you can see DoomsDave's evil lovely Zika here:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/306324/post-your-most-circular-cat-photo/180#post_4239274

at Post 188.

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It's been a couple of years since I started this thread. I started it when he was about 6 months old, and now he will be three years old in a few months. I thought it would be fun to update and show how much he has changed. He almost doesn't look like the same cat! As you can see, his body and face are MUCH darker, and he is now sporting a pink stripe on his nose. His nose and paw pads started to change colors when he was about 7-8 months old.

Yeah, the combo seal and white point seems to cause extra much darkening...

He's gorgeous!

Lola3791 said:

He's gorgeous!

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Thanks!

tabbysia said:

Thanks!

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You're welcome!