Cat Breeds - Mixed Breeds - Color Patterns

Cat lovers who are not actively involved in the cat fancy, often are confused about identifying terms of cats, such as purebred, DSH, and tabby. Hardly a day passes that I don't receive at least one email with an attached photo, asking me to help identify the "breed" of cat. The correspondant is often disappointed when my reply is, "Your cat is a beautiful example of a tuxedo DSH," or "What a lovely dilute calico domestic shorthair cat."

Because there seems to be such a general fixation on breeds, the purpose of this article is to clarify the difference in semantics, so that the uninitiated cat lover will have a better understanding of these terms. (The accompanying photo depicts my Joey and Jaspurr, who already displayed their distinctive tabby marking at a very young age.)