What breed(s) are they?

I am unsure what breed(s) my cats are, and am hoping someone can help me pinpoint it!

These are a few pictures of my cats -- Sherman is the orange one. I'm thinking he's just an Orange Tabby, but don't know if he could have underlying breeds or what-not. The 3 other cats in his litter were calico, tuxedo, and gray and white, and his mother was calico as well. He's mostly orange with a bit of white, and his tail is the most interesting -- he's got a dark orange stripe continuing from his back up the top of his tail, and around the tip he has 3 rings of white. I think he has a rather odd shaped face, as well. He is extremely long and skinny, and his tail is very, very long as well, and fluffy.

My other cat, Vinny, resembles a Snowshoe. His former owners originally told me he was a Siamese/Himalayan mix but I didn't think that was quite right so I began doing some research. Pictures I find of Snowshoes resemble Vinny, which lead to my thought he might belong to that family. He has no tabby in him, as he has no stripes at all. He's an average-sized cat, and his tail is normal sized also. Unlike Sherman, I think Vinny's face looks more "normal-shaped." Our vet has him listed as a domestic shorthair, but I just think there's more to it than that...

Can anyone offer their input?? Thanks!!

Ohh they are beautiful! That looks close to a SnowShoe to me. But what do I know? My one cat Pwne has the same look to her, sort of a stocky body, heavy cat but muscular, not fat and the big blue eyes. Same basic coloring but a little lighter and you can see some striping around her legs and top of her head.

I love Vinny though! Cool name too.

Without papers, all you can call your cats are domestic shorthairs. People are used to dog populations, where you can look at a dog and make pretty good guesses as to their ancestry, but with cats, just about every single trait that a purebreed has has been isolated and refined from the wild population. So unless you know for sure who the parents were, and if they had papers, you would not be able to tell if your cat came from a purebred or not.

That having been said, I can see the resemblance to the Snowshoe coloring (I'll leave type and such to the experts). And breeds or not, your boys are beautiful. Oh, and just as interesting trivia, all cats are tabby, you just might not be able to see it.

I have no idea what your babies might be, but I just wanted to say that they are gorgous! Your Vinny reminds me of my Luna. Her picture is in my signature.

The thing you have to remember about breeds is that they all come from the same basic ancestry tree. All of the characteristics they have are found in the moggie (feline equivalent of mutt) population. Just through careful selection, are these traits and characteristics emphasized. Or geographic isolation (e.g. the Manx).

Aw, there absoltuely no reason that being an underlying breed would make them better or more valuable. They are beautiful standard breed* cats....I love Vinny's coloring! Stunning!

*I think "standard breed" is a much more preferable term to domestic whatever hair. Most, if not all, breeds were CREATED using standard breed cats. Standard breed cats are not mixes of other breeds, rather some people who liked certain features of these cats took them and bred them into what they feel is an "ideal" version. Very few, if any, breeds occur naturally, and that probably has more to do with certain yet fairly common traits and patterns occuring in colonies of specific locales than it has to do with actual significant differences in looks, temperment, health or structure.

The way I look at guessing mixed breeds (with dogs at least) is that it's much more likely for the dog to be a mix of common breeds rather than rarer breeds. I'd say the same for cats. Snowshoes are a less common breed, it is more likely that your cat is a Siamese mix than a Snowshoe or Snowshoe mix.
The Snowshoe breed was original created by mixing Siamese with American Shorthairs. It seems likely that your cat is part Siamese and domestic shorthair-- the white markings on the face and paws come from a bicolor cat so one of the parents may have been a bicolor cat (or at least they carried the genes for that pattern.) It could also be possible that he could be part Himalayan although there's no way to know as his face and body shape don't seem to suggest any Himalayan.

The first one is considered a RED tabby domestic shorthair - no real "breed" in him.

The other could be snowshoe or at least "pointed with white". Like the one poster says "if you don't have papers, its more of a mixed breed". If you showed the snowshoe, you'd have to put down the description of Seal Point with White mixed breed.

They are both gorgeous!

Truly gorgeous!!

Without papers they are two gorgious moggies.

But as you want a shot;

the red-ginger one is European, the tuxedo one is Ragdoll. I think ragdoll bicolour looks like these.

I wouldnt be surprised if he is almost pure Ragdoll. How do he behaves, how do you feel him in body? If you held him up in the upper body, how is his lower body? quite limp or??

You may compare with the ginger European - should feel quite different.

His former owners originally told me he was a Siamese/Himalayan mix but I didn't think that was quite right so I began doing some research.

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More likely, the owners didn't know what breed their own cat was. I have a friend who claims to have a purebred Siamese, and it also has white points like yours. Siamese can't have white like that, so both cats are "moggies". Your cat probably has Siamese ancestry somewhere way back to get the points. Beautiful pattern though. Just goes to show that moggies can be prettier than purebreds. And he's probably got hardier genes, too.

Originally Posted by StefanZ

Without papers they are two gorgious moggies.

But as you want a shot;

the red-ginger one is European, the tuxedo one is Ragdoll. I think ragdoll bicolour looks like these.

I wouldnt be surprised if he is almost pure Ragdoll. How do he behaves, how do you feel him in body? If you held him up in the upper body, how is his lower body? quite limp or??

You may compare with the ginger European - should feel quite different.

Click to expand...

If I hold Vinny up so his hind legs hang down, he keeps his legs pulled up to his stomach -- Sherman lets his legs dangle. Is that what you meant?

Vinny is quite friendly yet a loner at the same time. He doesn't hide ever, but is just as comfortable sleeping alone as he is on a lap. He talks when he wants to, and is more likely to paw at us if he wants something. He doesn't play much, but I just chalk that up to him being older. I've never heard him hiss at anyone or anything, and he loves anyone who comes into our home -- including other cats and dogs.
Sherman is extremely friendly but has a short attention span. I chalk that up to his being still young -- he's still very, very playful as well. He will be held or cuddle for a short time because he's constantly on the go. He talks all the time, whether he's walking, jumping up or down from something, playing...whatever. He doesn't paw at us like Vinny does, he just goes for something if he wants it.
They both are moochers as far as table food goes -- they LOVE pizza crust, chicken, ice cream, and pasta sauce.


I love the idea that they're both mixed breeds -- it's just figuring out WHAT breeds they're a mix of! Haha

Originally Posted by kmkelly127

If I hold Vinny up so his hind legs hang down, he keeps his legs pulled up to his stomach -- Sherman lets his legs dangle. Is that what you meant?

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Im not expert on how Ragdolls feels alike. But I saw once how a ragdoll owner demonstrated it. He got the question: how do you see difference between Birma and Ragdoll? In some variations they are quite alike?! And he showed us. The ragdolls was hanging quite limp with his back body... They are also lying down different from most other cats I believe.
Do look up on ragdolls, is my suggestion, not snowshoe. Ragdoll bicolour. (btw, ragdolls are also masked like siameses, but the mask concealed in the bicolour).

You do have two very friendly and sociale cats, especielly this half-ragdoll.
Did you ever though about being a fosterhome for shy semiferals?
It is a very grateful thing to do tells those who do this, and not at all especielly diffficult if you have own friendly homecats to help.

Originally Posted by StefanZ

Without papers they are two gorgious moggies.

But as you want a shot;

the red-ginger one is European, the tuxedo one is Ragdoll. I think ragdoll bicolour looks like these.

I wouldnt be surprised if he is almost pure Ragdoll. How do he behaves, how do you feel him in body? If you held him up in the upper body, how is his lower body? quite limp or??

You may compare with the ginger European - should feel quite different.

Click to expand...

The red tabby is a red mackerel tabby domestic shorthair. The other is a seal point bicolour domestic shorthair. It isn't a ragdoll because a ragdoll is a longhaired cat and this is a shorthaired kitty, but he does have a common Ragdoll colour/pattern. This colour and pattern also is present in the {much larger} domestic shorthair population, however.

Ragdolls do come in a seal bicolor pattern, and with the white spotting factor, a Ragdoll could come up with this pattern, but a Bicolor Ragdoll, should have all white legs in and as well as white belly. The coat seems to be more short hair, then the mid to long length of the Ragdoll breed.
I have been around the Snowshoe breed, and of course without papers, one could never know, but he looks much more like a Snowshoe to me and has Snowshoe markings.
I have to say, both of your kitties are gorgeous.

For one looking for the differences in the Birman breed and Ragdoll breed, just check the TICA or CFA Ragdoll standards. The most obvious though is the Birman comes in one pattern, white gloves, and the Ragdoll comes in 3 patterns, colorpoint (no white), mitted (similar pattern to the birman, however the Ragdoll standard calls for a white chin that continues on to the bib and creating a white belly stripe), as well as the bicolor. The other major differences is the Ragdoll has more of scoop nose, and the Birmans is more roman. There are other differences as well.

Here is a link to some of the best of the Ragdoll breed.
http://www.rfci.org/info/color_pat/index.php
And for the Ragdoll bicolor pattern, here are more wonderful examples of the breed.
http://rfwclub.org/bi.htm

I had a hard time finding a breed club for snowshoes, I did find one in the UK, however I don't know if the standard for snowshoes is different from what we see here in the states.
http://www.snowshoecatassociation.co.uk/
I also found this site regarding Snowshoes, I am not sure if this is an organizational ran information site, but it does have pictures and more information.

I should also say that while Ragdolls are known for their laid back style, thie limp trait has been exaggerated. One will fine many Ragdolls that do have a very floppy personality, and others who love being held, but won't do the limp thing. They are very known for flopping flat on their backs and sleeping all spawled out, very commonly called the "Raggie flop"

Now away from all specifics, you have 2 sweet, beautiful babies, that I look forward to seeing more pictures of.

When I took my Brak to the vet she called him a Ragdoll mix, which I supposed is possible as he is very docile and doesnt mind being held or cuddled and has the long coat that is bunny soft and his coat hardly sheds at all. However he has a black nose which is definately not Ragdoll. The pet store i got him at (over 4 yrs ago i know better now) called him a himalayan mix which is junk I am sure.


brak is the white/grey and lamala is the black

There he is with is little girl Lamala whom I got from some people who seriously need to fix their cats! I talked to them about it and they claim there were going to. I sure hope so! (they had 3 prenancies all 1-2 weeks apart. 2 of the females were daughters to the first. They are outdoor/indoor cats. It's just a nightmare. Didn't know about the situtaion till I picked up my kitten.)

Your kitty looks exactly like a snowshoe- are all 4 of his paws white, i.e. snowshoes?

Here is breed info. The one picture is what made me think your cat looks like a true snowshoe.

http://us.iams.com/iams/en_US/jsp/IA...=snowshoe.html

Anyhow, sorry for resurrecting this thread. I was googling for snowshoe personality traits and came across it.

I have a tuxedo kitten whose mom was a snowshoe and she has so many of the breed personality characteristics. She looks nothing like a snowshoe, but she is sweet as can be.

... I think you stole my cat.

Your Vinny looks JUST like my Hennessy! (He's gotten darker since the pic in my siggy. )

Does he feel like a bunny too?