A cat's fur is its crowning glory and is a source of insulation. In the wild, a cat's coat color serves as camouflage and its related to its natural habitat. Chance color mutations and selective breeding have produced the variety of coats seen in today's pedigree cats. Types of coat, like color, also developed to suit habitat the more rugged the climate, the thicker the coat.
Patters
The domestic cat (like the wild cat) is basically tabby in marking, but selective breeding has produced a wide array of "self" or solid color as well as new patters - from black, lilac, and blue, to tortoiseshell, smoke, or cameo, and many more. There are just some of the possibilities.
Types of Tipping
Tipping may be very light or extend down the hair almost to the root. A ticked coat has hairs that are banded.
Coat Varieties
The three types of hair in a cat's coat are the topcoat or guard hairs, the bristly awn hairs and the soft, curly down hairs (pink).
 British Blue Shorthair |  Angora |
 Russian Blue |  Lilac-point Siamese |
 British Tortoiseshell Smoke Shorthair |  Abyssinian (Usual) |
 Foreign Lilac Shorthair |  Abyssinian (Sorrel) |
 Tonkinese |  British Black-tipped Shorthair |
 British Red Tabby Shorthair |  Korat |
 British Black Shorthair |  British Blue-Cream Shorthair |
 Exotic Colorpoint Shorthair |  British Tortoiseshell Shorthair |
 British Silver Spotted Shorthair |  Black Smoke Longhair |
 Maine Coon |  Cornish Rex |
 Blue Longhair |  British Black-and-white Bicolour Shorthair |
 British Tortoiseshell-and-White Shorthair |  Blue-Cream Longhair |
