i have read all comments that were before me and agree with most.. yes Polydactyl is a pretty common trait in maine coon but can happen with any breed of cat or dog.. but on the subject of what your kitties are i believe that they defiantly have turkish angora in them for the fact they both have the longer fur along their jowls with is a turkish angora trait not a turkish vans.. saying that, they are not full breed angoras because of their colors they are mixed with something else.. mine is colored the same way with the caramel browns and black blobs along the beautiful white coat, and mine had babies with a russian blue boy.. the kittens were adorable all short hair but have longer cheek fur and a large muscular body from the russian blue, but the stance of the turkish angora [ballerina like] hope this helped a bite

I recently brought in a stray that looks exactly like your cats. Despite countless hours of research, I still thought my stray a turkish angora mix. Turkish van's also look similar, but I'd say turkish angora mix is what both of our cats are.

I recently brought in a stray that looks exactly like your cats. Despite countless hours of research, I still thought my stray a turkish angora mix. Turkish van's also look similar, but I'd say turkish angora mix is what both of our cats are.

I had a cat, Niles, for ten years that looked exactly like yours. When I say exactly, I mean exactly. I got him from a shelter as well. My vet thought that he was an Angora mix. When I look at pics of Turkish Angoras online, I see a lot of the same features that Niles had except he had some brown and black mixed into his beautiful white coat.

I had to put him to sleep about a year ago. He had always been healthy, but suddenly developed heart disease. I miss him everyday (as demanding as he was).

Hi Anne Marie,

Your girls are indeed beautiful, but coming from a shelter, without papers it is impossible to tell what they are. That said, they aren't built anything like a TA, nor do they have any of the characteristics. Polydactylism isn't present in the TA gene pool, but is WAS a latent characteristic in the Maine Coon gene pool, & even though breeders select against this trait now because it can be ultimately harmful to the cat, sometimes it does pop up in pedigreed Maine Coons. They are beautiful bicolor domestic long hairs, & there is NOTHING wrong with that. I have a domestic long hair girl that I got as a 2 week old orphan, & bottle raised. Keegan is the love of my life, even if she doesn't own a pedigree

Hi Annmarie. They are beautiful cats, and as Michael says, without papers they both must be labeled semi-longhair mixed breeds. That however doesn't make them any lesser cats - on the contrary, I'm sure many here will say...

The Van pattern alone doesn't make Baby Kitty a Turkish Van - besides I reckon her father lives somewhere in your neighbourhood and you would probably have noticed any special looking Toms around? He may actually be a shorthair himself, because as Mama is semi-longhair, it's enough for the father to be carrying the semilong-hair gene to have kittens like Baby.

It's hard to determine what kind of semi-longhair is in Mama's mix, but one thing that strikes me is that you say both are polydactyl (i.e. having more that the normal number of toes). That characteristic is mainly seen in Maine Coons - actually many people see polydactyl MC's as a variety of the breed, whereas it is very rare in other breeds. That to me indicates some Maine Coon in the mix of your cats.

But whatever it is, you have a couple of beautiful and special cats.