# A cat of a Different Color! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 7, 2006, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-cat-of-a-different-color/359795 "2006-06-07T20:13:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![XaMcQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/f9ae1b/32.png) [@XaMcQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XaMcQ)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-cat-of-a-different-color/359795/1 "2006-06-07T20:13:01Z")
(I hope I’m not double posting. The board went weird on me during my first try.) [This is TwoTone](http://img477.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dcos3xr.jpg) the cat. He’s a very sweet kitty with a two colored coat like I’ve never seen or heard of before. He has a solid black top coat, and a shorter, softer undercoat that is snowy white. Is he a rare breed, a mutant, or what? Anybody? ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-cat-of-a-different-color/359795/2 "2006-06-07T20:38:45Z")
My Gwen is colored like that - she’s a dilute tortiseshell, but if you part her hair her undercoat is white. And when I brush her, all the hair in the brush looks white. ---
**Author:** ![hawksgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed655f/32.png) [@hawksgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawksgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-cat-of-a-different-color/359795/3 "2006-06-07T20:44:46Z")
Its called an agouti pattern, the shaft of the hair is a different color closer to the skin. Its a common genetic coat pattern. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-cat-of-a-different-color/359795/4 "2006-06-07T21:00:33Z")
> [@XaMcQ](#): > > Is he … what? He is beautiful! ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-cat-of-a-different-color/359795/5 "2006-06-07T21:08:40Z")
> [@hawksgirl](#): > > Its called an agouti pattern I thought it was called agouti too, until I looked it up at [Cat Fanciers](http://www.fanciers.com/other-faqs/color-genetics.html): > [@](#): > > The Smoke pattern results from the action of shading on a solid (non-agouti) coat. All of the hairs have full color well beyond the point at which the agouti band would appear, and then turn into a near-white undercoat. Such a coat looks like a solid color until you blow on it or the cat’s movement reveals the contrasting white undercoat. Apparently there’s a difference between individual [agouti hairs](http://en.mimi.hu/cat/agouti_hairs.html) and an overall agouti pattern. More on [cat color genetics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_coat_genetics#Genes_involved_in_fur_pattern_and_shading) at Wiki. ---
**Author:** ![hawksgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed655f/32.png) [@hawksgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawksgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-cat-of-a-different-color/359795/6 "2006-06-07T21:11:39Z")
Well, my knowledge is rabbits, and with them it would probably be considered agouti. Meh, cats, rabbits, same difference, right? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-cat-of-a-different-color/359795/7 "2006-06-07T21:17:24Z")
> [@hawksgirl](#): > > Its called an agouti pattern, the shaft of the hair is a different color closer to the skin. Its a common genetic coat pattern. Surely those hairs can’t change color halfway through growth - if the hair shaft is two-tone, why don’t the white bits end up on the outside of the fur? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-cat-of-a-different-color/359795/8 "2006-06-07T21:18:03Z")
> [@hawksgirl](#): > > Meh, cats, rabbits, same difference, right? Sure, I always remember that the Cat Fanciers are the same folks that want me to call my Big Orange Tomcat Red. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-cat-of-a-different-color/359795/9 "2006-06-07T21:20:40Z")
Smokes are common in persians I raised them for a while. I had blue smokes, white undercoat, gray outer coat, black smokes, like the one pictured, and one red smoke. Marmalade outer coat, with white under. I almost kept that one, but she wasn’t very bright. ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-cat-of-a-different-color/359795/10 "2006-06-07T22:02:09Z")
> [@](#): > > Surely those hairs can’t change color halfway through growth They do, though. While not as dramatic an effect as TwoTone (pretty cat!), my cat has a semi-“ticked” coat. A hair from her fur looks like this: [====buff======][black][==brown==][black] Here’s a good link: [http://www.gorki.net/habits/appearance.html](http://www.gorki.net/habits/appearance.html) ---
**Author:** ![Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirror_Image_egamI_rorriM)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-cat-of-a-different-color/359795/11 "2006-06-08T00:39:21Z")
Some other interesting [black and white](http://www.messybeast.com/freak-skin.htm) cats. None quite the same as your cat, though. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-cat-of-a-different-color/359795/12 "2006-06-08T00:45:59Z")
> [@Gaudere](#): > > They do, though. While not as dramatic an effect as TwoTone (pretty cat!), my cat has a semi-“ticked” coat. A hair from her fur looks like this: > > [====buff======][black][==brown==][black] > > Here’s a good link: [gorki.net - This website is for sale! - gorki Resources and Information.](http://www.gorki.net/habits/appearance.html) The cat in the picture is not like that. Most cats, have two layers of hair. The exception to that are the [Rex](http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/devon.html) breeds that are missing the outer layer of hair. Most of the time, normally haired cats outer and inner layers are the same color, the exception here are the “smoke” colors, who have a white inner coat and colored outer coat. I’m not questioning the effect you’ve pointed out, but it’s isn’t the same thing.