A Pattern Does Not a Breed Make …

Breeds Are Based On Both Traits AND Parentage

Teresa Keiger

“My cat is gray. I think that he’s part Russian Blue.”

“Yes, he’s a big boy, isn’t he? Who’d have thought I’d find a Maine Coon Cat wandering up to my house!”

“Fluffy’s kittens are about eight weeks old now. Really cute too. And one of them is a Siamese!”

*A sweet, blue domestic cat that shows none of the traits of a Russian Blue, or any other blue breed.*

Every cat fancier has heard similar statements and have inwardly cringed while debating whether to explain to the enraptured owner that genetics (among other things) does not work that way, or to just smile and state how wonderful their cat is.

This Manx shows that there is more to the breed than just a lack of a tail. Her back legs are longer to help her balance (which the tail would normally do). Her head is round, and the ears gently curve up and out. She has a well-padded muzzle and slightly slanted eyes. Manx come in a wide variety of colors and patterns. This girl is a dilute calico pattern.

At some basic level, people like to categorize things. The human brain loves organization as it helps us make sense of the world. But our thought processes are also prone to miscategorization, grouping together things that may look similar, but are not related in the manner that we have categorized them. To the uninformed cat lover, breeds can be one of those disorganized groups.

So Many Cats, So Few Breeds

Think of all the domestic (i.e. not wild cats such as bobcats, panthers, etc.) that you can. Cats that live with humans (indoors, outdoors, or both), feral cats who belong to no one, neighborhood cats that hang around humans. The Cat Fanciers’ Association currently recognizes 46 different breeds; other registries may recognize more or fewer. What percentage of all domestic cats are of a specific breed?

The answer surprises most people. Only about five percent of all domestic cats are of any recognized breed. That’s right: 95% of all the members of Felis catus are of no breed at all. None. Much of this has to do with the cat’s relatively short history of domestication and living with man as opposed to the much longer history and relationship of the dog and man. However, unless the cat in question is known to have come from a breeder of pedigreed cats, it will almost certainly not be of a specific breed. This does not mean that they do not have a place in our hearts and our homes or make them less lovable. But one should not make the mistake of referring to anything as something that it is not.

Defining a Breed

A breed is not defined by one trait alone. All breeds have breed standards which describe the perfect example of each breed in terms of various attributes. These include:

Head shape (including muzzle, ears, and eyes)
Body shape
Coat length and texture
Color and pattern
Additional traits, often unique to that breed such as coat texture, lack of hair, shape of ears, etc.

*This longhair American Curl shows the signature curled ears, but also the long, elegant body, refined boning, and modified wedge head that its breed standard calls for.*

A member of any breed must be able to reliably reproduce all attributes related to its breed, not just its color and/or pattern. Even our breeds which are known for one specific trait (such as the American Curl and its backwards curling ears) have in their breed standard specifications for the head shape, body type, coat texture, etc.

By and large, when a breeder plans a mating, it is between two cats of the same breed, and the offspring should demonstrate all the attributes of the breed. For example, two Siamese cats will always produce a litter of pointed kittens that will grow up to be long, elegant cats with wedge-shaped heads. Two Maine Coon Cats will produce large, longhaired cats which have squared muzzles, shaggy coats, and upright ears. (We will not get into the particulars of recessive genes causing anomalous colors in a litter, as that is beyond the scope of this article). In contrast, a domestic cat mating could produce four kittens which look nothing like each other in pattern or in body type. Part of this of course could be that several males were involved in the breeding, each siring a different kitten. But the other part is that the parent cats have no defined, reproducible attributes. We even see this within human families where children vary in height, hair color, and body type. Domestic cats are no different.

Patterns Are Not Breeds

*A Persian cat in the parti-color (tortoiseshell) pattern. Also notice the Persian’s round head, round eyes, rounded body, very small ears, and flat profile.*

Many cat-lovers’ confusion begins by mistaking a pattern for a breed. And likely, the most common example of this is erroneously calling every pointed cat a Siamese. In reality, several other breeds also come in the pointed pattern only (e.g. Colorpoint Shorthair, Birman, Ragdoll, Himalayan, Balinese/Javanese. Read about our pointed breeds in this article). Thirty additional breeds have the pointed pattern in their breed standard, and these are only the pedigreed cats; the pointed pattern occurs in domestic cats as well.

*A longhair Scottish Fold in the calico pattern. Even if the ears were upright, one would know it is a Scottish Fold from the round head, round eye, very padded round muzzle, and heavy padded body.*

Two popular female-only patterns are often used as breed names. The calico pattern is a white cat with large patches of red and of black (or cream and blue in the case of a dilute calico pattern). The tortoiseshell pattern is a black (or sometimes chocolate) cat with bits of red softly intermingled all over the body. But neither calico nor tortoiseshell is a breed. As with the pointed pattern, these patterns belong to pedigreed breeds and domestic cats alike.

The Odds Are Not in Favor

Many people have trouble understanding the concept that a cat cannot be any specific breed. Much of that is because people are used to thinking about the hundreds of dog breeds recognized by US and international registries, and with that, the hundreds of dog breeders working with these various breeds. But as we all know – cats are not dogs.

The Bombay is a solid black cat with shiny black coat covering a foreshortened, muscular body. Its round head has bright, round, gold eyes and its profile is shorter than most cats (but not nearly as short as its original parent breed, the Burmese)

While judging a show and talking about our breeds, a very nice visitor to the show told me about his black cat at home, noting that he thought it was a Bombay. I gently responded with a reality check for him, noting that in the US, there were probably only about 15 Bombay breeders (and that’s an estimate, but it is one of our less-registered breeds). “What are the odds” I asked, “of a Bombay actually walking around in neighborhood and looking for love in all the wrong places AND finding another Bombay to mate with?”

The simple truth is that there are just not pedigreed cats wandering farms, forests, and suburbs. Breeders most often sell their pedigreed cats and kittens to the public already altered, and buyers will probably not allow a cat that they paid hundreds or thousands of dollars for to wander outside. Compound this with the bad practice that many shelters have of calling any gray (or blue) cat a “Russian Blue mix” or a large longhair cat a “Maine Coon,” and it’s no wonder than people get confused! Plus – that practice is both false advertising and misrepresents all responsible breeders. Thank goodness informed shelters and rescues are reconsidering this practice.

So, What DO I Call My Cat?

The wonder of cats is that they have so many possibilities of color and pattern combinations! When someone shows me a photo and asks me what their cat is, I respond with the cat’s color and pattern. It might be a brown mackerel tabby (the most common, and one of the original colors and patterns of cats), a red classic tabby and white, a blue point, etc.

But most importantly: what their cat IS is the center of their universe — their joy, their comfort, their darling one.

Teresa Keiger

Teresa Keiger is Cat Talk’s editor and has been with the publication since 2013. She has been a professional graphic designer and photo retoucher since the mid-1990’s and currently creates many of CFA’s images. She has bred Russian Blues under the Platina Luna cattery name since the mid-1990’s and is a CFA Allbreed Judge.