#and she had the most mackerely mackerel son with a blotched tom

[amber-tortoiseshell]

Do you have any tips on telling the difference between different varieties of tabby on long-coated cats? Like 95% of the examples on google are shorthair tabbies.

I can't say anything in good conscience, sorry. If it's a cat around you and not just a picture, try to get a look in the sun, that can help to see the patterns better.

Blotched is usually (but not always) recognisable from the bigger dark patches, but i have a very hard time differentiating between mackerel and spotted tabbies, the pattern too easily gets too blurred to say anything confidently. Best i think is, um, checking them when they're young, and the pattern is more visible. Not always possible, yeah.

This cat is spotted, by the way.