Originally Posted by comyncats

"Tri-colour" is a US expression... we (most of the rest of the world) don't use it, but a tortie can express 3 colours in the coat...let's say black, red and cream. The latter 2 colours can appear to be different so you have 3 colours.... but the so-called cream in dense coloured torties (black, choc) is just a lighter shade of red.

Tortie tabby or ticked occur when you mate a tortie to a tabby, of whichever pattern (classic/botched; spotted; mackeral; ticked) It's a combination of tortie pattern and tabby pattern.

Hope that helps a bit!
Lesley