From: ambar@cygnus.com (Jean Marie Diaz)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
Subject: Re: What kind of cats do I have?
Date: 10 Sep 92 01:58:59 GMT
	<1992Sep4.105833.27835@super.org>
	<1992Sep5.052418.24474@zia.aoc.nrao.edu>
Organization: Redheads Anonymous
In-reply-to: dbriggs@zia.aoc.nrao.edu's message of Sat, 5 Sep 92 05:24:18 GMT

In article <1992Sep5.052418.24474@zia.aoc.nrao.edu> dbriggs@zia.aoc.nrao.edu (Daniel Briggs) writes:

   So let's just recognize that an unqualified breed name is can mean different
   things based on context, and that if it doesn't agree with the context you
   habitually use, it may not be "wrong".  If you want to be unambiguous, there
   are aditional terms you can use to make your meaning crystal clear.

What he said.  Let me deliver two examples.

First, I recall someone earlier in this thread asserting that 'Siamese'
just gave you a picture of the coat pattern.  I say there's a big
difference between a short-coated, slender, seal point Siamese with a
wedge-shaped head, and the long-haired, big-boned, square-muzzled cream
point and white cat I acquired from a shelter some two years ago.  In
fact, Jack is best described as "a Maine Coon type with a Siamese in his
woodpile'.  He is not a Maine Coon, any more than he's a Siamese.  He's
a cream point and white domestic longhair, which suits all concerned
just fine.

Example two: Jack, some 24 hours *after* being neutered (and despite
precautions), managed to sire **six** kittens (the word 'Argh' was heard
repeatedly) on my tortoiseshell Maine Coon, Dorable (who has enough
papers, pedigree, breeding, championships, and grand points to
irrevocably establish me as one of those evil breeder people who is only
out to "rook people out of pictures of dead presidents".  Never mind
that my cats are definitely a money sink.  Dear me, I digress.)  Five of
those kittens were given their shots and placed in homes with neutering
agreements.  The sixth stayed with me.

Robin is a gorgeous tortoiseshell and white, a sweet-tempered snuggler
(she likes to lie between my arms as I type), with the classic tiny
chirpy voice, even (unlike her mother, whose vocal tone can only be
described as a squawk.  :-) Yet she is a domestic longhair, not a pure
Maine Coon.  The phrase 'Maine Coon mix' would also be descriptive and
accurate.  However, genetically, she carries the recessive for the
Siamese pattern, which is not found, by definition, in the pure Maine
Coon.

I might add that papers have very little to do with this.  I could have
lied about the sire of the litter, registered all six kittens, and
placed them for $400 each instead of the $50 I asked to cover vet costs.
(There's even a term for this in the cat fancy--it's called 'hanging
paper'--and I was told by at least one CFA-national-award-winning
Persian breeder that I should do just that.)  Would this have made those
kittens any more purebred?  Hell, no.  It would have been LYING.

Robin is what she is, and she doesn't need a breed tag to fancify
herself.  This is why I, personally, get so tired of the repeated
queries about 'what breed is my cat'.  I'm happy to go on for pages
trying to explicate the fine points of this or that breed for people who
are interested in comparing their cats to the ideal of a specific
breed....

But what set off this rant is that I see people trying to appropriate
the prestige of their cat being of this or that breed, while sneering at
the people who love that breed so much that they work to preserve its
good traits.  (By the way, we call these folks breeders.  We are also,
unfortunately, stuck with liars, con artists, and egomaniacs who also
are called breeders.  It's not easy to tell the difference by looking at
the people.  Look at their cats instead.  And not just the cats they
have at the show, but the ones they keep at home, too.  Then again,
there are liars, con artists, and egomaniacs in every field, so maybe we
should be used to it by now.  Hmm, digression number two.)

Why not appreciate a cat, any cat, for what it is?

				AMBAR
cat lover-cat fancier-cat breeder-cat exhibitor.  You may like it or lump it.