By all the authorities I can find that seem to have some standing, a
tortoise shell does *not* have white.  Some allow a difference between
calico, and 'tortoise shell and white'.  In any case, it's the female
manifestation of what would be a red tabby and white cat if male.  The
top two rows in
<http://72.173.4.230:9000/tdavis/cats/03.jan/index.html> are pictures
of a m/f pair of siblings with essentially the same color heredity.

The bottom row is another m/f pair of siblings that show a couple of
other things that can happen with red, white, and tabby: red tabby
color point and apricot with a white tipped tail.

Ok, I looked it up.  According to a site about Maryland's state cat (who
knew such a thing existed?), the calico, to be a true calico the cat must be
tri-color with distinct patches of color and not mixed, as with the tortoise
shell cat.  So, the OP's cat barely looks to have three colors and the
colors are definitely mixed.  Therefore, it doesn't matter if there's white.
Tortoise shell cats can have white.  It's the number/kind of colors and the
way the colors appear, patched or mixed, that matters.  So, the OP's cat is
definitely a tortoise shell.  Although, after looking at the pictures on the
site, I'm looking at my kitty again and wondering if she is closer to being
a calico than I thought. The pics on the page look a lot like my
Butterscotch!!  But, she does have places where colors are mixed and places
where they are very distinct, so I'm sure she's a tortoise shell.
http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/mdmanual/01glance/symbols/html/cat.html

Beth

If she is a tortie with white, she's a calico.

Beth,

My thanks to you and everyone else that replied, I do appreciate it. Yep,
they do look very similar, same patters, except replace the white with
different shades of gray, and add a whole lot more fur!

You have a real cutie there, I really love Torties, we had a pure
brown/black shorthair Tortie from the same litter as our other that passed
away last year, and have been thinking about adopting another, although as
we well know they can never be replaced....

Again my thanks, off to brush the beast! ;-)

Paul

I'd say she's a tortise shell like mine.  Here's a picture. The vet
classified her as a short hair domestic tortise shell.  Yours has other
colors obviously, but the patterns look the same.

Beth

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e154/beth628/DSCN0262.jpg

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e154/beth628/DSCN0362.jpg

Greetings,

Have always wondered about the coloration of our 9 year old female. I'm not
one to boast about our pets, or ask nagging questions, but her coloration
was always a bit odd to me.

What I do know, her mother was a pure (non-white), Tortoiseshell American
Shorthair, she seems to be an American Longhair. Her fur gets really
brownish in the summer, and really grayish in the winter.

Other than that, here are a few pics, if any of the experts out there can
help me out:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j95/valhuen/BBY3.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j95/valhuen/BBY2.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j95/valhuen/BBY1.jpg

She wasn't in the most cooperative of moods today :-)

Many thanks,

Paul