Creative Cat Colors

Agouti:
A salt-and-pepper pattern made by light and dark banded hairs, seen on ticked tabbies and as background on mackerel, classic and spotted tabbies.

Awn hairs:
The stiffer of the two types of fine hair in a cat's insulating secondary or undercoat.

Bicolor:
A coat made up of any color or pattern and white.

Blue:
A coat color in many breeds that is any variation of gray, from slate to ash.

Calico:
A coat pattern that combines the red and black patches of the tortoiseshell pattern with patches of white.

Cameo:
A coat color distinguished by the white base and the red tip on each hair. Divided into shell, shaded and smoke depending on the extent of the tipping.

Champagne:
A creamy light brown coat color.

Chocolate:
A rich, "milk chocolate" brown coat color.

Cinnamon:
A reddish brown coat color.

Cobby body type:
The sturdy, round and compact body shape best exemplified by the Persian and the exotic.

Conformation:
Configuration of the cat’s body, from fine to heavy boning; shape of skull, and eye, ear and tail size, shape and placement.

Cream:
A light buff-red coat color; sometimes called “diluted red.”

Crossbreed:
Offspring of two different breeds or the act of mating two different breeds.

Double coat:
A thick coat, the result of guard and awn hairs of equal length.

Down hairs:
The shorter and less coarse of the two types of hair in the insulating undercoat.

Fawn:
A pale, warm, pinkish beige coat color; sometimes called “diluted cinnamon.”

Foreign body type:
The long, slim, moderately tubular and elegant body shape best exemplified by the Siamese and the Abyssinian.

Guard hairs:
Outer hairs that make up the protective topcoat and provide color and shine. The longest of the three types of hair.

Himalayan:
Colorpoint Persian. Sometimes considered a breed; sometimes classified as a variety of Persian.

Lavender:
A pale, pinkish gray coat color. Sometimes referred to as the combination of the blue and chocolate dilution systems.

Lilac:
A pinkish gray coat color; also called lavender.

Mascara lines:
The dark lines of color running from the edges of the eye toward the cheek of a cat.

Odd-eyed:
Eyes of two different colors, one of which is usually blue. Occurs most often in white or white-spotted cats.

Particolor:
A coat comprised of two colors, such as red and black or blue and cream.

Patched:
As in patched tabby. A particolor coat overlaid with a tabby pattern. Also referred to as “torbie.”

Pedigree:
Direct line of ancestry going back several generations or the official document attesting to ancestry.

Pointed pattern:
A coat pattern in which the color is darker on the extremities, including the legs, tail, ears and mask, than on the rest of body, as in the Siamese.

Red:
A coat color actually closer to orange.

Ruddy:
A brownish-red coat color often used to describe black or sepia brown ticked tabbies such as Abyssinians and Somalis.

Sable:
A dark brown, almost black, coat color.

Seal:
A dark brown coat color; the most common color of pointing in Siamese.

Shaded:
A color pattern in which a silvery white cat is heavily tipped in black or red, mostly over its back. Can also occur in black on a golden background.

Shell:
Similar to shaded, but with less tipping, giving a more delicate pattern.

Silver:
Silver-white color of hairs closest to the body in tipped.

Single coat:
Minimal down and awn hairs. The guard hairs lie close to the skin in both long and shorthaired varieties.

Smoke:
A coat that appears to be solidly colored until it is parted, revealing that the color extends no more than two-thirds of the way down the shaft of each hair. The remaining hair to the base should be pure white.

Tabby:
Coat pattern distinguished by stripes and/or patches of color, including spots or blotches; also includes ticked coats.

Ticking:
Two or three alternating bands of distinct light-to-dark coloration on individual hairs.

Tipped:
Individual coloration of hairs in which dark tips become progressively lighter toward base. Shading limited to tips.

Torbie:
see Patched.

Tortie:
see Tortoiseshell.

Tortoiseshell:
An irregularly patched or intermingled pattern of red and black (or blue and cream) usually found only in females; also called tortie.

Undercoat:
Layer of insulating fur made up of awn and down hairs. Comprised of only down hairs in some cats.

Van:
A bicolor pattern with color limited to extremities and one or two spots on torso.