EMS stands for the Easy Mind System — a standard shorthand used across GCCF and FIFe to describe a cat’s breed and appearance in a few letters and numbers. Once you can decode it, you can read any cat’s essentials instantly.
The breed code
The first part is the breed: for example SIA (Siamese), BSH (British Shorthair), OSH (Oriental Shorthair). It’s always three letters.
The colour code
Next comes a colour letter — for instance n for seal/black, a for blue, b for chocolate, c for lilac. The same letters are used consistently across breeds.
Pattern and other modifiers
Additional numbers and letters describe pattern and features — tabby, bicolour, white markings, and so on. For example 03 indicates bicolour, 21 indicates a tabby/agouti pattern.
A worked example
BSH a 03 reads as a British Shorthair (BSH), blue (a), bicolour (03) — a blue-and-white British Shorthair. Simple, once it clicks.
Never look one up again
Perfect Pedigrees translates breed, colour, pattern and eye colour into the correct EMS code automatically as you enter a cat — no charts, no guesswork.
