Tabby Cats

Tabbies are widely thought to be their own breed. However "tabbies" are cats of many different breeds that have patterns on their fur that ressemble the patterns on their ancestors: African Wildcats.
There are 4 main types of tabbies:

• Mackerel
• Classic
• Spotted
• Ticked

The mackerel tabby pattern has vertical, gently curving, narrow stripes on the side of the body. Often, an 'M' shape appears on the forehead. Mackerels also have a 'peppered' nose, where black spots appear along the pink tip of the nose. Mackerel is the most common tabby pattern.

Classic (or 'blotched') tabbies have a similar 'M' pattern on the head, but the body markings are different. Classic tabbies have a whirled and swirled pattern with wider stripes that make a patterm that is referred to as "butterfly" patterns on their shoulders, and usually a bullseye or oyster pattern on the flank. The legs and tail patterns can be very different with respect to the width of the bands.

Ticked tabbies  produces hairs with distinct bands of color on them, breaking up the tabby patterning into a salt-and-pepper appearance. Striping or "barring" can often be seen on the lower legs, face and belly and sometimes at the tail tip.

The spotted tabby may not be a true pattern, but a modifier that breaks up the mackerel pattern so that the stripes appear as small spots. The stripes of the classic pattern may be broken into larger spots. Both large spot and small spot patterns can be seen in the Australian Mist, Bengal, Egyptian Mau, and Ocicat breeds.

Fun Fact!
These are Fictional tabbies:

• Garfield and Nermal (from the Garfield comic strips)
• Puss in Boots (from the Shrek movies)
• Prof. McGonogall's animagus (from Harry Potter)