Cat fancy language gets thrown around a lot at your first show without anyone stopping to explain it. Here's the shorthand, in plain terms, for the words that come up throughout this guide.
- AOV — "Any Other Variety" — a show class for cats that don't fit standard colour classes, allowing them to still be judged against the breed standard.
- Bicolour — A colour pattern combining a solid or particolour base with white patching; a dominant trait.
- Carrier — A cat with one copy of a recessive gene that doesn't show in its appearance but can be passed to offspring.
- CH / GC / PR / GP — Champion / Grand Champion / Premier / Grand Premier — CFA titles; see Chapter 10 for what each actually indicates about quality.
- CPC — "Colour-point carrier" — a Persian with pointed (Himalayan) ancestry in its pedigree, shown in its own colour class rather than as visually pointed.
- DM — Distinguished Merit — the "breeder's title," earned by a cat whose offspring have achieved GC/GP in significant numbers.
- Dominant / Recessive — A dominant gene shows with just one copy; a recessive gene needs two copies to show in appearance.
- Dilute — A recessive modifier gene that softens black to blue and red to cream.
- Green slip — The official CFA registration slip for a cat, needed to enter shows.
- Heat / queen cycling — The recurring fertile period in an intact female cat.
- Homozygous / Heterozygous — Homozygous: both gene copies match. Heterozygous: they differ.
- Pedigree — A cat's documented ancestry, typically shown three to five generations back.
- Pinking up — An informal early pregnancy sign in first-time queens, where the nipples enlarge and brighten in colour.
- Pointed / Himalayan pattern — A recessive pattern restricting colour to the face, ears, legs, and tail ("points").
- Premiership class — The show class for altered (spayed/neutered) cats, often the entry point for new exhibitors.
- Queen — An intact adult female cat used for breeding.
- Registration prefix — The cattery name attached to the start of a cat's registered name, identifying the breeder of record.
- Sire / Dam — The father / mother of a litter.
- Solid — A single, even coat colour with no shading, pattern, or white.
- Standard — The official written description of the ideal type for a breed, used by judges.
- Tabby — A dominant pattern producing striped, spotted, or marbled markings.
- Type — How closely a cat's overall structure matches the written breed standard.
- Van pattern — A bicolour pattern where colour is confined mostly to the head and tail, with the rest of the body white.
- Whole / intact — Not spayed or neutered.
