Conclusion

With this information you should be able to work out your cat's EMS code without looking at its pedigree.

• First, locate the three-letter code for your breed. When you write it down, remember that breed codes are always capitalized.
• Second, find your cat's colour in the colour codes, which are always indicated by lowercase letters. Leaving a space after the three-letter breed code, write the colour code. If your cat is a silver, it will always have an "s" after its main colour code. For example, a black silver is "ns", a blue silver is "as".
• Next, if it is a patterned cat, find the code that corresponds to its pattern. All patterned cats except smokes must be identified by a pattern code. Persians, British and Burmillas can be shell or shaded. A chinchilla is a shell, which means that only the tips of the hairs have colour on them. The code for shell is "12." Thus, a Persian chinchilla would be identified by the code "PER ns 12." (Note that there is a space between the colour and the pattern codes, too.) A shaded silver Persian, whose tipping goes farther down the shaft of each hair, is written "PER ns 11."

The EMS, which is not a genetically based system, is intended to be both easy and logical. With a little practice any cat breeder should be able to speak EMS as fluently as his or her native tongue.