What Breed Is This Cat?

arlyn

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She's a domestic shorthair, a moggie.

Her color/pattern though is torbie (tabby tortoise shell).



She quite beautiful
 
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jaycee

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moggy? ive never heard of that before, what does it mean?
 

arlyn

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It means the same thing that mutt means for dogs, a mix breed of unknown ancestery.
 

jen

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Her breed is Domestic Short Hair. Her colouring is Torbie which means Tabby Tortoise-shell mix. She is a moggie.
 
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jaycee

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ok, im a little confused. how can she be a domestic shorthair and a moggy at the same time when domestic shorthair is a recognized breed?
 

hissy

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Moggy is a general term, meaning cross breed of unknown distinction- typically stray cats and ferals are moggies.

Domestic Shorthair refers to her coat, she is now in your home, therefore she is domesticated (or one can hope) and she has shorthair.

She is not a breed, she did not come about because of careful planning, she was the result of what is termed backyard breeding.

She is lovely, I love her muted colors.
 

zissou'smom

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You might be confusing Domestic Shorthair (the catch-all for a moggy) with American Shorthair, which is a breed:
http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/american-sh.html

There is a big difference. If you did not get your kit from a registered breeder, she's not an American Shorthair even though a lot of moggys fit under the basic breed standard.
 
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jaycee

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ok, moggie is good


but domestic shorthair is listed as a recognized breed whenever i look it up online, although they recently officially changed the name to american shorthair because the word domestic in the name domestic shorthair refers to the fact that this is a native (domestic) breed to our region. anyway that is how it is explained on cat breed sites.
 

zissou'smom

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It was changed from Domestic Shorthair to American Shorthair in America in 1966.
 
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jaycee

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so then did domestic shorthair turn into a slang phrase for moggie?
 

arlyn

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No.
A moggie is a moggie, they are either Domestic Shorthair (DSH), Domestic Longhair (DLH) or Domestic Medium hair (DMH).
 

zissou'smom

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Yes. Actually, moggy is more of a British term for mutt-cat. On this board, most members who've been around long know it and use it. Also in certain circles, like fanciers and showers and breeder, they have begun using moggy too.

Americans as a whole don't have a word for moggies, and so most vets will list the breed of your cat either as "mixed-breed" or "DSH". Zissou's vet records all say DSH.

In short, sort of, DSH became a word for moggies after it changed, in fact they changed it because people had begun using it to mean "mutt-cat" which is what I prefer to call them. So, it continued being used for Moggy and American Short Hair now refers exclusively to the actual breed.

I'm a word-nut if you can't tell.

Okay, and what Arlyn said. I think DSH is also often used to describe any moggy though. Mine is truly a medium-hair, but nobody calls her a domestic medium hair. In fact they once listed her as a DSH with medium hair.
 

arlyn

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It's simply a matter of demographics, vet's offices, Microchip companies and the like do not like to leave empty spaces on forms under breed.

It's very much like the race checkbox on any form we fill out for ourselves.
 

zissou'smom

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Very interesting Arlyn! You learn something new everyday!


So, can I put "prefer not to answer" next time they ask?
 

arlyn

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LOL that'd actually be kinda funny


I do believe though that the only reason Vet's ask breed is because of some breed's predisposition to some medical issues.
 

hopehacker

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Another term a lot of people use for Moggies, is Alley Cat, which basically means it's not a particular breed.
 
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