From: Lynda Fincham <gaea@zooid.guild.org>
Subject: Re: Two Siamese Cats Free to a Good Home
Organization: ZOOiD BBS
Distribution: tor
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 21:27:51 GMT

dan@msen.com (Dan Sugalski) writes:
>I wrote:
>: Well, the funny thing is that after seeing over 5000 cats in my life (I worked
>: in a vet clinic for several years), I've never seen a two colour cat that had
>: orange and something other than white as it's secondary colour. Ie, I've never
>: seen an orange and black cat only, or an orange and grey, as mentioned here. I
>: do notice that many people misdescribe the colours of their cats. I recently
>: adopted a black tabby (tabby, with black being the predominant colour), but 
>: before I saw her, I was told that she was calico (a tri-coloured cat, mixing
>: white, orange and black or grey). And the person who told me she was calico
>: was another vet tech!
>
>You've never seen a tortiseshell cat?  In some areas, calicos are called
>tortiseshell and white.  Torties don't have white, just the red and black
>(or the dilute versions thereof) and may be solid or tabby.  

A tortishell cat is still a tri-colour cat, although often the third colour
(white) is hard to see, or only appears in small patches. Tortishells have a
different type of markings, usually orange (with white) "sprayed" over black,
where calico's have large patches of the three colours. 

>On your tabby, brown tabbies have black markings over a greyish-brown
>base.  Often these cats have red in the undercoat, causing those who don't
>know cat colors to think that they are calico.  

No, no red in this cat, it was mostly black, with dirt brown and beige.

>I've found that most vet techs (and vets for that matter) don't know much
>about animal colors.  Out of 7 cats I've had, only one was consistently

That's not surprising, a good many of the people working at vet clinics are
students who just like animals or need a job. They most often handle the
"upfront" work, leaving the more techinical and medical aspects to the trained
personal, like the vets and licensed technicians.

>listed under the correct color, and she was a tortie.  My others are/have
>been a blue tabby, a brown tabby and the rest ruddy or brown ticked.  The
>two tabbies tend to be listed as grey tigers (both have broken
>stripes/spots and heavy ticking) and unless someone has seen an Abyssinian,
>I am asked what color the others are.  We go through the same thing with
>my parents husky cross, who is usually listed as black and tan but is actually
>sable and cream.  I always have to insist that my grey horses markings are
>filled out on his health papers, too.

I can see some one getting mixed up between a "blue tabby" and a "grey tiger",
but mixing up a husky that's really "sable and cream" with "black and tan" is
unexcuseable.

>I suppose I wouldn't care, but I travel around the US and through Canada
>with these animals, so I prefer that the health papers match the animal in
>question.  At least my 2 home dogs are easy-black and tan.:)

I a) don't travel, and b) don't really care because all the cats I currently
own are generically coloured - beige and white, grey and white, and black. If
some technician ever confuses the colours of my cats, I'd probably go
somewhere else! :)

---
Gaea (Lynda Fincham aka Mother Nature)   gaea@zooid.guild.org
ZOOiD Online, Toronto, Canada            (416) 322-7876
Free and Paid Public Access Usenet       (416) 322-0920
"It's easy to spot the optics."