PL*Forest Eyes l’Bond

🐱 Norwegian Forest Cat

📸 Dorota Biskupska [Forest Eyes*PL]

La Platanera House, Mexico City - Taller de Arquitectura X

There are two possible uses of the word "tabby" (and I think both are equally valid and useful and have their places).

One is what you use: when a cat is striped. That's it. In this meaning "solid" ambers are tabbies, yes. This is what people mean when they say "all orange cats are tabbies". This is useful in everyday talk, but can get messy, think of smoke ghost tabbies or ticked tabbies.

The other is what i use on this blog: tabby is when a cat's agouti genotype is 'A_', solid is when it's 'aa'. Unfortunately this means both (genetically!) tabby and solid cats can have bafflingly not tabby- or solid-looking phenotypes and that can lead to confusion.

It's intuitive for black: a black tabby is striped, a solid black is solid. This is why the a allele is called "solid" - in reality it doesn't make the cat patternless per se, it increases the production of the black pigment in the "background" of the tabby pattern.

The only difference between the genetics of these colors is the agouti gene.

For red, genetically solid cats often look identical to genetically tabbies.

Kitten and adult photo of a cat born to a solid black and a solid tortie. He's 100% genetically solid red.

Solid tortoiseshells can show this difference very well:

The black parts of this cat reveal it's genetically solid - but still have stripes on the red patches.

Amber is somewhere in the middle between red and black: solid cats aren't completely black, but still blacker than tabbies.

This is probably a direct consequence of how orange cats doesn't produce any black pigments whatsoever, while ambers do have some, just less than blacks, so being genetically solid has less effect on them.

Another photo of the tabby and solid amber cats from my previous post

In summary:

GOP centrists push Democratic ObamaCare discharge petition to 218-signature threshold

by Sudiksha Kochi and Mike Lillis - 12/17/25 10:12 AM ET

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5652673-gop-centrists-democratic-obamacare-discharge-petition

'I want to get a bill passed': Rep. Lawler blasts GOP leaders over impending ACA lapse

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When Tommy comes home, it's to find Evan and Aurora in the backyard turning over the compost heap to find beetle grubs, presumably for the chickens that the Yang family is rearing. It's barter trade for their excess eggs. Tommy says a silent prayer that they moved here where there isn't an HOA and they have decent neighbors.

"Papa!" Rory shrieks when she sees him, tearing across the backyard to get to Tommy, her gardening boots ripping up bits of grass. "Papa, you're home!"

"I am!" Tommy sweeps his daughter up into a hug and kisses her on the cheek. "I missed you, Firefly."

"Welcome home," Evan calls out, leaning on his shovel. His sweat-soaked tank top is stuck to him, and his curls are limp from perspiration. Tommy takes a moment to appreciate his husband's body, raking his gaze from top to bottom and back up. From the smirk on Evan's face, his appreciation hasn't gone unnoticed.

Tommy strides over to kiss his sweaty and unfairly hot husband. "What are we doing?"

"Hunting for grubs," Rory informs him helpfully.

"For Erika's chickens?"

"No." Rory wiggles and Tommy sets her down. "I'm not friends with Erika anymore."