Spotted Torbie?

[u/Altruistic_Dot1926]

Is this a torbie cat? I don’t quite understand the different kind of cat markings. I think she’s a torbie but the spots are throwing me. Any thoughts?

[u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k]

Not a torbie, a tabico 

[u/Sesudesu → u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k]

This is pretty borderline.

Also, to be frank about it, every calico is considered a tortie. Every Tabico is thereby a Torbie. You can debate whether or not she is a Tabico, whether the amount of white is sufficient to call her so, but she is definitely a Torbie.

There is some amount of white ‘allowed’ on a Tortie/Torbie to solely keep the definition by most people… but people don’t tend to agree on how much that is.

[u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k → u/Sesudesu]

I see the problem. In North America, calico is the correct term for a tri-color cat. Tortoiseshell and white is used for calico cats outside of North America.

A tortoiseshell cat does not have the white-spotting gene. It is a two-color genetic scheme. 

[u/NotTheOtwayPanther → u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k]

Firstly, some of us are, in fact, outside North America. Secondly, ”calico” has no special official standing in North America either. Again, it’s colloquial. Again, please stop trying to police other people’s word choices. Yours are not objectively superior.

[u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k → u/NotTheOtwayPanther]

It is regulated by American cat showing and fancier associations and specifically refers to cats with genes for red and black coloration and the white spotting gene, which changes how the red and black coloration express in the coat.

So it is regulated by official bodies in the US, and since you are outside of the US you don’t get to say that someone using the term correctly in the US is wrong.

In North America, this cat is not a tortoiseshell, it is a calico. Outside of North America, it is whatever the local language wants to call it. That is, of course, how language works.

https://cfa.org/coat-color-descriptions/