Lol, you revived a months old discussion to triple down on an unambiguous error and call me a pedant. I don’t want to go to any parties you’re involved in.

You used an adjective that describes a pattern that isn’t on your cat. That’s not a minor detail of your post. You’re the one trying, and failing, to be a pedant.

Lol, months later. You posted to a cat community, don’t get upset when people call you out on using cat terms incorrectly. The better response is to learn and not repeat the mistake. Calling it petty pedantry is absurd.

Tortoiseshell in the context of cats has a specific meaning. if you don’t care to learn what that meaning is, it’s easy to just not use the term.

OP used a word with a specific meaning. Someone pointed out that that word doesn’t apply here. You come in to say that we’re wrong for pointing out that word doesn’t apply and keep digging in to say why the word doesn’t mean what it means.

One of us is an ass for sure.

I’m aware. It’s also the one the tortoiseshell pattern (in general, not just for cats) is named for. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortoiseshell

And frankly, it doesn’t particularly matter what OP meant. Doesn’t make it correct. Tortoiseshell cat fur is a specific pattern.

This is just kinda obstinate though. Tortoiseshell in the context of cats obviously refers to the fur pattern. To assume otherwise is odd. And just because that’s the kind of tortoiseshell you’re thinking of doesn’t mean the pattern isn’t also named after a tortoiseshell.

Tortie is just shorthand for tortoiseshell, which the belly isn’t. She’s a very pretty cat, but words have meanings and she doesn’t have tortoiseshell pattern fur.