Ocicats

Well muscled and strong, the cats look athletic and wild with their lovely spotted coats. Graceful, active and independent, they make good pets. Lovely, thumbprint-shaped spots on the sides of the torso, somewhat like a classic tabby pattern - a spot circled by spots in place of the bull's eye is distinctive to the breed.

The Ocicat coat colours are generally divided into 8 coat colour classes.

Accepted ocicat colours include: tawny (brown spotted tabby), chocolate, cinnamon, blue, lavender, fawn, ebony silver, chocolate silver, cinnamon silver, blue silver, lavender silver and fawn silver.

White agouti ground in silver or the spotted patched tabby, reds and creams are considered a disqualification.

With a short, smooth satiny texture on their coats, Ocicats look beautiful with their solid, long bodied look and large, almond eyes angling upward toward the ears. The eyes are rimmed with the darkest coat colour. All eye colors except blue are allowed.

Distinctive mascara markings may be seen around the eyes and on the cheeks. As per the breed standard Ocicats should have a lovely tabby " M" present on the forehead with markings extending up over the head between the ears and breaking into small spots on the lower neck and shoulders.

The general coat pattern is dark spots against a lighter background. The color of the tail tip independent of the coat colour is important in deciding coat colour.

The only unbanded area on an Ocicat is the tip of the tail. Otherwise, every hair on the coat and including the tail has an attractive banding.

The lightest color is on the face, chin and lower jaw while the darkest color is found on the tip of the tail.