Grey Cat Adoption

A grey cat is not a Russian Blue

This is the most common confusion in grey cat adoption, and it costs adopters money. Russian Blue is a specific pedigree breed with a defined body type, a dense double coat and green eyes. Grey is a colour, produced by a dilution gene acting on black, and it appears across many breeds and in countless ordinary domestic shorthairs.

Plain grey domestic shorthairs get advertised as Russian Blue mixes by hopeful sellers all the time, and adopters arrive expecting the specific temperament that goes with the pedigree. If you want a documented Russian Blue, look at that breed page and expect to wait. If you want a beautiful grey cat, rescues have them regularly and you will not wait long.

Why rescues sometimes say blue

Blue is the traditional breeder and show term for a diluted black coat, so it appears on pedigree paperwork and in breed descriptions. When a rescue takes in a surrendered pedigree, the term often travels with the cat into the listing.

In practice blue and grey mean the same thing when describing a cat coat. A blue-cream is a dilute tortoiseshell, and a blue tabby is a grey tabby. If a listing uses blue, read it as grey.

Grey cats are overlooked for the same reason black cats are

Solid dark coats photograph flat under shelter lighting and read as unremarkable in a grid of thumbnails next to a calico or a tabby. Grey cats sit alongside black cats as the colours that get scrolled past, which means they stay available longer and face less competition.

In person a good grey coat is anything but plain, particularly the silver-tipped and smoke variations that only show in daylight. The same advice applies as for black cats: ask for a photo taken near a window before deciding.

Which grey breeds actually turn up

Occasionally you will see Russian Blue, British Shorthair, Chartreux, Korat, Nebelung or a Maine Coon in a blue coat, and almost always as mixes rather than documented pedigrees. Far more often the cat is a grey domestic shorthair or domestic longhair, which is not a lesser cat in any way.

• •British Shorthair: stocky, round-faced, dense plush coat.
• •Russian Blue: fine-boned, silver-tipped, reserved with strangers.
• •Chartreux and Korat: rare in Canadian rescue, frequently claimed, rarely documented.
• •Grey domestic shorthair: by far the most likely, and widely available.

Adopting a grey cat in Canada

Grey cats are common enough that you can be selective about temperament rather than settling for whichever one is available. Use that. Since coat colour tells you nothing about behaviour, the foster or shelter assessment is the only information that matters.

• •Search grey, gray and blue. Rescues use all three inconsistently.
• •Treat any pedigree claim without paperwork as a description of looks, not ancestry.
• •Ask for a daylight photo, exactly as you would for a black cat.