Somali

The Somali cat shares genetics with the Abyssinian cat. They have a unique luxuriant coat due to having two copies of the recessive gene for long hair, unlike its cousin, the Abyssinian cat. Somalis are known for their vivacity and gregarious spirit. Their sleek physique, long tails, and huge pointed ears have given them the moniker "Fox Cat". Their ticking coats have between four and twenty colors on each hair and are exceedingly fine in structure, making them gentler to the touch than other cat species' coats. The cat itself is of modest size.

The standard or ruddy Somali is golden brown with black ticking. There are 28 Somali colors in all, however some organizations only accept a subset of these. All Somali registration organizations allow normal (also known as reddish), sorrel (commonly known as red), blue, and fawn. Most clubs accept usual/ruddy silver, sorrel/red silver, blue silver, and fawn silver as well. Some registers may accept chocolate, lilac, red, cream, usual-tortie, sorrel-tortie, blue-tortie, fawn-tortie, chocolate-tortie, lilac-tortie, and silver versions of these hues (e.g. blue-tortie silver).