[ownedbycats]

Tabby is the most common coat pattern gene. It's the pattern wild cat's coats come in. Most people are familiar with the stripe version of tabby, but tabby patterning can vary widely. There are five kinds of tabby patterns. Here's an article explaining and showing the different kinds of patterning.

http://www.catster.com/cats-101/tabby-cat

Here's another site, that goes into more detail on the genetics (this may more detail than you want, but I like learning about how genetics work and maybe you do too)

http://threecatyard.wordpress.com/an...coat-patterns/