Cat Breed... Birman?

Question
Hello, I have a beautiful cat... I used to describe her as half Himalayan, half Siamese. She has long hair, a black "seal point" face with deep blue eyes, long cream colored fur on her torso, dark brown fur on her legs and paws, and a dark brown bushy tail.

I was trying to identify the breed, and the closest I can come up with is Birman. She looks exactly like that breed, except that in all the websites I've seen, Birmans have white paws and the brown fir doesn't go all the way up their legs.

So do some Birmans have brown paws and brown fir all the way up their legs?

Just curious.

thanks

James Schendel

Answer
James,

You can see excellent photos of Birmans at:

http://www.cfa.org/Breeds/BreedsAB/Birman.aspx

The identifying feature of these cats is their white "gloves" and white "booties".  Without these, it really is not a Birman. You do get varying amounts of white on the paws, so, it may certainly be possible for a cat out of a Birman litter to have very little white, but they should have white on all four paws.

Beyond this, they should have stocky bodies, silky long fur, ears that are wider than they are tall, a roman nose, and a golden shimmer to their coats no matter what the point color(a.k.a. "golden mist").

I hope this is helpful.

Best regards... Norm.