What "type" of cat is this?

[Jazuela]

I renamed my cat, Jelly-Belly just doesn't "fit" her. So - Isabelly it is :)

She's a domestic long haired cat, I am pretty sure she's not any sort of pure breed. I've done some google searches and the only thing that comes close would be a long-haired pastel tabby-tortie. Pics tomorrow when it's light out, so I don't have to use flash and you can see her amazing eyes. Here's a description:

Her fur has the texture almost of those fake spider webs you buy at halloween. Extremely fine individual hairs that are probably very likely to get matted if she isn't a natural groomer and/or I keep her well combed.

She has a white "bib." Her face has shading very similar to a male lion, but not the same color. It looks almost air-brushed, it's so perfect :) She has the typical tabby markings between her ears down to the top of her nose.

If she was a short-hair, I would -almost- think she was a mackerel tabby, but it looks more like there are spots rather than lines. In some places. In others it looks more like lines. She definitely has dark striping around the tops of her legs. Her back legs are disproportionately long compared to the front, almost like a puma. Her coloring is sort of tawny brown with silver and dark grey. But all very muted - diluted I think is the term for it. Unless she's a pastel. That's where I'm getting confused, along with what the hell kind of pattern this is on her. It's almost impossible to tell if they're stripes or spots, except for the bands on her legs.

Her eyes are like dessert platters, enormous and almost perfectly round, and either blue-flecked green or green-flecked blue (I can't tell which is dominant, it's almost equal).

[Dwarven Empath]

Yah jelly bean dun fit. But silly bean would work

So call her sillybean.

Medi...

[Numbers]

A picture would be 100x more helpful than a description.

[HarmNone]

I'd love to see a picture of her, Jazuela! She sounds to me like a diluted tortoishell and white, but I'd need to see a picture to be sure. In cats of "mixed heritage", you often see a mixture of tortoishell and tabby markings. The fur sounds like she's probably got a good-sized dollop of Persian in her. That can be a real problem, since the fur mats so easily. Daily combing will probably be a must.

I'm really anxious to see her. The eyes sound gorgeous! :)

[Back]

Yes, please break out your digital camera and take a pic of your pussy for us.

ZING

[Jazuela]

I've got the batteries recharging now. I don't know if I'll be able to upload the file though. My computer never recovered fully from the one and only trojan that disabled the HD and brought me to bios around 8 months ago. I can probably e-mail it to Backlash and he can put it up for me if it doesn't work. Every time I try to "reply" to a post here it tells me I'm logged out and have to log back in again. Drives me nuts and I have no idea what I need to config on my browser to fix it (I'm using SeaMonkey, the latest Netscape web suite).

[HarmNone]

Ish. Sorry to hear your computer was assaulted! :(

I'm sure Backlash will be glad to help. I'm dying to see this cat! She sounds soo pretty! :)

[Jazuela]

Well just remember, her fur is -very- dull, not at all shiny like a healthy cat's fur should be. She is emaciated, but the animal control officer said she actually gained more than 2 pounds since they found her just a couple of weeks ago. I'll want her to gain at least 3 more pounds before I would consider her a "healthy" slimness, but then I like my cats pudgy :)

Oh and I'm renaming her again to Jezebelley. Every time I tried to say "Isabelly" when I talked to my sister on the phone tonight I had to stop myself from saying Jezebelly. So - for the next hour at least, it's Jezebelly, heh.

[HarmNone]

I'm sure her fur will regain its shine once she's eaten well for a bit. Poor little thing was nearly starved to death. I've had cats in that condition and it usually takes a month or so for them to regain their health to a point where they really look great. It's fortunate she didn't have parasites. I guess being shut in was a good thing, from that viewpoint. I'm certainly glad she was found!

[Jazuela]

She's definitely iron deficient. I did a "visual" (blech) and didn't find any worms, just very very light uh - brown (way too much information I know).

I'll be getting a small bottle of fish oil tomorrow and a dozen eggs to add to her food. I'll see if she likes peanutbutter too - some cats love the stuff, and a thimble-full every couple of days should get her iron levels right back to normal within a week.

[HarmNone]

Peanutbutter is great! Making a peanutbutter sandwich around here is taking one's life in one's hands. Three cats jump you at once and the other one sits there with this confounded look on her face trying to figure out what the heck the rest are so excited about. :D

[Sean of the Thread]

I always pegged you as the pet + peanut butter type.

[Back]

ZING!

[Jazuela]

Lousy picture because she won't keep her eyes open with the flash. But you can make out a little of the blue color. And the "egyptian eyeliner" frame around her eyes and the shading. Yes, she really -is- that dusty looking, that's why I'm giving her fish oil with her food. And that's ALL fur. Under it she's skin and bones, barely five pounds, if that.

[Jazuela]

Here's a picture of my other cat, Sinchilla - aka Sinchi, aka Fatbelly, aka Whacko Nut Cat. She's a domestic short-hair black calico.

[Sylvan Dreams]

Could she be part Maine Coon?

The important features of the Maine Coon are the head and body shape, and the texture and 'shag' of the coat. The head is slightly longer than it is wide, presenting a gently concave profile with high cheekbones and ears that are large, wide at the base, moderately pointed, and well tufted inside. They are set well up on the head, approximately an ear's width apart. Lynx-like tufting on the top of the ears is desirable. The neck should be medium-long, the torso long, and the chest broad. The tail should be at least as long as the torso. One of their most distinctive features is their eyes, which are large, round, expressive, and set a a slightly oblique angle. Overall, the Maine Coon should present the appearance of a well-balanced, rectangular cat.
Throughout their history there has been no restriction on the patterns and colors acceptable, with the exception of the pointed Siamese pattern. As a result, a wide range of colors and patterns (http://www.fanciers.com/breed-faqs/maine-coon-colors.html) are bred. Eye colors for all coat colors range through green, gold, and green-gold. Blue eyes and odd eyes, (one blue and one gold eye) are permissible in white cats. There is no requirement in the Maine Coon Standard of Perfection for particular combinations of coat color and eye color.

http://www.fanciers.com/breed-faqs/maine-coon-faq.html#Desc

[Jazuela]

It's hard to tell, but I doubt it. Coons are enormous animals, and Jezebelly is a petite flower. Small-boned and extraordinarily flexible in musculature. Her fur isn't very thick, either, though that could just be the result of neglect. Her ears are actually pretty small. She also does that "silent meow" thing a lot, and her distressed moaning when we rode home in the car sounds exactly like a typical siamese.

She isn't playful at all - again, more likely neglect than breeding traits. She totally gets into the facial scent-marking thing and will even do head-butts, heh. And she purrs almost constantly. Not a lap cat either, and didn't seem to be all that interested in catnip, other than trying to scent-mark the jar with her face. (We humans think they're giving us kisses - they're really just trying to get some of their scent from glands around their whiskers onto our bodies. It's a possessive trait that says "MINE.").

[Kyra]

(We humans think they're giving us kisses - they're really just trying to get some of their scent from glands around their whiskers onto our bodies. It's a possessive trait that says "MINE.").

Heh, I never knew that. Interesting...my last addition to the household does this only to me but she does it alot. Of course she's queen bee of the house too.

~K.

[Jazuela]

Brought Jezebelly back from the vet just now, to make sure she's healthy (since the animal control had no records from the previous morons who abandoned her).

She got her distemper and rabies shots, with recommendation to get meds for tapeworm in a month, when she returns for her second distemper. She doesn't -have- tapeworm, but she did have 2 fleas, and fleas = tapeworm, so it's more a precautionary measure than anything else. She weighs 7 pounds - more than I thought, but still not enough. I plan on getting her to a rich, healthy, proper housecat weight of 10 pounds, within the next 2 months.

I asked the vet if she could label Jezebelly's pattern, and she came to pretty much the same conclusion I did: A little of everything. She's got too much caramel coloring to be a "classic" tabby, but she has stripes, which disqualifies her from the tortie/calico category. Plus, she has black dots where her whiskers come out, and more of a "lioness" shape to her face, which means she can't be a "siamese mix." Most of her pattern is the "mackerel tabby" but she has bits and pieces of a bunch of other patterns all over her body, including a black stripe running from the top of her head to the tip of her tail.

Think of her as a "Domestic Long Hair Picasso" and that should be just about right :)

[Back]

Shes a good looking cat, Jaz. Never seen one like her.