SMOKES and SOLIDS
If your cat is essentially monochrome -- pretty much the same color all over – you’ve got a “solid.” (More about “smokes” in a minute)
Most solid-colored cats get their hue from a recessive gene that actually suppresses the tabby pattern. Interestingly, you can sometimes see a “shadow” tabby pattern in certain lights on a cat that appears otherwise to be a solid. This is only true of big cats – the black leopard often has shadow markings. (And, of course, Shadow or Pedimento would be wonderful names for a cat with this fur)
Although these cats are ‘solid gold’ in many ways, their coats are limited to:
SOLID BLACK
Black in all its shadings is represented: coal black, brown-black, charcoal black. Some solid blacks seem to change color in the sunshine, their coat developing a rusty or lighter brown cast.
• Minuit (French for midnight)
• Kettle
• Black Licorice
SOLID BLUE
A solid blue is actually blue-gray, again in all its permutations: deep slate, medium blue-gray, and pale ash gray. Most often found in Russian Blues, Chartreux and Korats, but also found in less “royal” lineage.
• Sky King
• Caspian C. (a play on Caspian Sea, with the ‘C’ representing Cat)
• Old Ironclad