The information provided below was sent to me from Sister Stephanie who has a wonderful interest in color genetics.

Unlike the Ragdoll breed which is limited to certain pointed colors, the Ragamuffin has many different colors as well as many different markings. Some of the most common colors of the Ragamuffin are Black, Chocolate, Blue, Lilac, Red, Orange, Cream.

Without going into color genetics, here is a quick listing of the different color types and markings of the Ragamuffin:

Color points: A pointed cat causes the color to be effected by body temperature. Warm areas will be white or very light and cooler body areas will allow more pigment in the hair shaft causing darker color. All pointed cats are born completely white ... because of the warmth in the mother's womb prior to birth. The first body areas to begin to cool and allow the color to come in are the extremities (i.e. the "points"), ears, tail, nose, feet. As a kitten grows into a cat, the areas of the body continue to cool and the color gets darker and more areas show color. As a pointed cat ages and gets darker, the "point" areas are generally always a little darker than other areas. So, unlike a "solid" (non-pointed) cat where the color is fully visible at birth and is a constant density of color wherever it occurs on the body, the pointed cats will generally be a bit darker at the points.

Color points can be without any white pattern (with the lighter areas a cream color) and are just called "colorpoint" (or when identifying the color can be called: sealpoint, bluepoint, chocolatepoint, lilacpoint, flamepoint, creampoint), or they can have some white (from the "white spotting gene") with the point color. The white spotting gene overrides the temperature sensitive coloring and makes certain areas white.

Mink: Then you run into the situation where a cat inherits one pointed gene from one parent and one "sepia" gene from the other parent. This is the definition of a Mink. Neither the pointed gene or the sepia gene is completely dominant over the other so that they interact with each other giving a merging of characteristics. Thus, a mink is born with "some" color but not with "full" color and, like a pointed cat, the color will darken with age (i.e. cooling of the body) and always be a bit darker at the points, but the main body color will be much darker and more uniform than on a pointed cat. A mink can come in combination with all the main colors above ... and has some special terminology to describe them: Natural mink (seal/black), Blue mink, Champagne mink (chocolate), Platinum mink (lilac), Red mink, and Cream mink.

Silver/Smoke: What does this mean? When a ragamuffin is referred to being a silver (in pointed cats) or smoke (in non pointed cats), it means the hair on the cat has a whitish color at the base of the hair, instead of being one solid color from base to tip. Tessa is referred to as silver in her color description because she has the lighter colored hair base, while Buddy's hair is a solid color from base to tip.

Mitted: One pattern among the Ragamuffins are the "Mitted", where there is white on the belly, chest and chin and also the front feet (but with color on the front legs) and back legs up to the hocks. Mitteds also sometimes have a white "blaze" between their eyes and down to the nose and Muffin breeders love it when there is also a "white tail tip". So, you will hear pattern descriptions such as: seal mitted or blue mitted (the mitted pattern occurs both in "pointed" cats and in the "solid"/non-pointed cats).

Bicolor: The other pattern common among pointed cats (and in solids, too) is the "bicolor" pattern. Bicolor cats have white on the face that forms an inverted "V" pattern. They also have a white belly, chest, back legs and entire front legs (thus no "mitts"). The mitted and bicolor patterns are determined by the "white spotting gene" with the bicolor having more white than the mitted.

Van: Then there are the vans where the cat is mostly white with just a little color on the head and tail and sometimes a couple small spots of color on the body. Again, the van pattern is possible both in pointed and non-pointed (solid) cats.

The other thing to keep in mind is that while the formal "mitted", "bicolor" and "van" patterns are common among RagaMuffins, our Breed Standard allows any amount of white anywhere on the body in any pattern or non-pattern. There is no requirement among RagaMuffins for the white to be "symmetrical" or form any particular pattern. So, RagaMuffins are usually (in accordance with ACFA which also dropped the mitted, bicolor, van terminology) just called "and white" if there is any amount of white on the cat.

Lynx: The term "Lynx" is simply used for a pointed cat that also has the Tabby gene. So a striped "solid" cat (with or without white) is called a Tabby and a pointed cat which has stripes just where the color comes in (i.e. the points: face, ears, feet, tail and a little of the back ... as the body temperature cools) is called a Lynx. A Lynx is a tabby pointed cat.

Tortie: Tortie is just a shortened form of "tortoiseshell" and refers to any female (it is sex linked) cat that has both black and red hairs (or blue and cream hairs if it is also a dilute). Most often the black and red hairs are mixed together in a mottled pattern but sometimes the black and red colors separate out into black and red patches. Both are called tortie though sometimes the term "calico" is associated more when the colors are in separate patches and with about 50% of the body being white. ACFA dropped the term "calico" because of the confusion about determining how much white or patches of color is necessary. In ACFA if the cat has both black and red it is called a "tortie". Torties may have white or may not have any white at all. The determining factor in a tortie is the combination of red and black hairs.

The term "tortie" is generally used only of non-tabbies (except among pointed cats where they do use the term: tortie lynxpoint). Solid (non-pointed) torties that are also tabby are called "Patched Tabby". But when you hear of a cat that is a "Patched Tabby" it means that it is a female tortie (black and red hairs, with or without white) that is also a tabby.

Tabbies: Interestingly, all cats are genetically tabby... that is all cats have tabby genes. The determining factor as to whether or not they show their tabby pattern (and thus are called "tabbies") is whether or not they have an Agouti gene. It gets rather complicated so I won't go into the details of that now. There are actually four types of tabby patterns:
1) Mackerel Tabby (usually shortened to "McTabby") is the most common and it shows as vertical "tiger" stripes on the body.
2) Spotted Tabby - is like a mackerel tabby but the vertical stripes are broken up so that they look like spots (like a leopard).
3) Classic Tabby - where the "stripes" on the body are actually a larger blotchy swirl pattern.
4) Ticked Tabby - most known in the Abyssinian breed ... where there are no stripes at all.

I think most lynxpoints (tabby colorpoints) have the mackerel (mctabby) vertical stripes, but I think genetically they could be any of the tabby patterns. The striping on the face, legs and tail (I think) are generally more like the mackerel stripes for all the tabby patterns. The true tabby pattern (mackerel, spotted, classic and ticked) is generally identifiable on the main body (and pointed cats may not have enough body color to determine the precise pattern... anyway, all tabby colorpoints are simply called lynx points).

Below is a scanned picture of the four tabby patterns:

Eye Colors: Mink cats normally have aqua eyes. This is a result of the interaction of the pointed gene and the sepia gene that defines a mink. First you have to realize that all pointed cats have Blue eyes by definition. The blue eye color is actually a lack of color in the eye. Blue is the result of a lack of pigment in the eye. Mink cats have one pointed gene that limits the pigment in the eyes and one sepia gene that has a green pigment. The result is a color between blue and green... i.e. aqua. Some minks have a little more influence of one gene or the other and so some minks eye color will be closer to blue (or blue itself) and some will be closer to green ... and some will have one blue and one aqua eye ("odd-eyed"). One really interesting thing about blue and aqua eyes is when you take a flash picture, blue eyes will reflect as red (the dreaded "red eye") and aqua eyes will reflect as dark green (and green eyes will reflect white/yellow- the dreaded "alien eyes"). Sometimes it is hard to tell the eye color for certain... and I've known breeders who were not quite certain if a cat was pointed or a mink, so they take a picture and if both eyes reflect red (thus indicating blue eyes) then the cat is most likely a colorpoint. But if one or both reflect green then the eye(s) are aqua and the cat is a mink.