The Somali is an elegant medium-sized cat with a moderately long body and well-developed musculature. Its legs are thin, long, and straight, with small oval feet. The tail is rather long, quite thick at the base, and well-proportioned to the body. The head is wedge-shaped, featuring large ears that are moderately pointed at the tip. The eyes are almond-shaped, bright, and expressive, with colors ranging from yellow to hazel through green.
One distinctive feature of Somali cats is their ticked tabby pattern. The usual or ruddy-colored Somali has a golden brown ground color ticked with black, known officially as black ticked tabby. There are a total of 28 recognized colors of Somali, with names referring to the ticking color. Commonly accepted colors include usual (ruddy), blue, sorrel (cinnamon), and fawn. Additionally, some organizations recognize usual/ruddy silver, blue silver, sorrel/red silver, and fawn silver varieties. Other colors that may be accepted by certain registries include chocolate, lilac, red, cream, usual-tortie, blue-tortie, sorrel-tortie, fawn-tortie, chocolate-tortie, lilac-tortie, and their respective silver variants (e.g., blue-tortie silver).
