loquaciously

Kitty contemplates a feather’s demise.

Kitty, kitty, get the feather!

My neighbor’s daughter took the little tabby female home with her this morning :(

I hope she’ll do well in her new home.

Now it’s just the three boys left.

Also, my genetics fix for the day:

“Cat Genetics and Coloring

A cat with patches of red and black is a tortoiseshell, or ‘tortie’. Add white, and you get a calico. A tortoiseshell that is homozygous for the recessive ‘dilution’ gene is referred to as a blue-cream, and that’s what color it is: patches of soft grey and cream. This is the same gene that turns black cats ‘blue’ (grey), and red cats cream. A blue-cream and white is generally referred to in the cat world as a dilute calico. The pattern of black/red or blue/cream can either be in big dramatic patches, brindling, or some of both. Having more white seems to encourage the formation of the big patches.

Red in cats is a sex-linked color, carried on the X gene. Therefore, a male cat whose X carries red will be a red tabby. A female cat who carries one red and one non-red X will be a patched tabby, a tortoiseshell, or a calico (if she also has the dominant gene for white markings). A female cat who is homozygous for red (has it on both X genes) will be a red tabby. This is why you see more male red tabbies than females. This is also why male calicos are so rare: you have to have two X genes to be a calico. Male calicos have genetic aberrations of various sorts, of which XXY is most common. While they are most commonly sterile, there *are* documented cases of fertile male calicos. However, the generalization that “all calicos/torties are female” is true 99.999 percent of the time.

The reason red females are “uncommon” is that, statistically, the number of red males is equal to the number of tortoiseshell/calico, patched tabby, and red females. Red males and tortie/calico/patched tabby females can be produced when only one parent has the red gene, but to produce a red female, you must cross a red male with a red/tortie/calico/patched tabby female. That is why red females are uncommon. But not “impossible”, in the sense that a male calico is “impossible.”

A “solid red” cat will always display the tabby pattern (although it may be very slight or even undetectable without brushing the fur back to check). There’s another gene at work which controls “agoutiness” (whether individual hairs are banded or solid). Cats who are non-agouti will not generally display the tabby pattern, except in red areas. The non-agouti gene does not affect phaeomelanin, the red pigment, so red cats always show their tabby pattern.

The red gene “overrides” the solid gene, making the tabby pattern visible again. (And on other solid colors, you can sometimes notice the underlying stripes, especially in strong light.) Solid red cats at cat shows may or may not be genetically solid—they are (generally longhairs) bred for the “blurring” of the tabby pattern, producing a cat that doesn’t have dramatic markings.

Solid - Tabby
——- ——-
black - brown tabby
blue - blue tabby
red - red tabby
cream - cream tabby
chocolate - chocolate tabby
cinnamon - cinnamon tabby
fawn - fawn tabby

The colors a calico will produce depend on the color of the sire. But at minimum, she can produce red and non-red sons, and patched tabby/tortoiseshell/calico daughters, as well as non-red daughters. Whether she will produce tabbies or not depends on the genetic makeup of the sire. And *any* of the kittens could have white markings, or not.”

found here

I’ve got so many photos of these kittens playing. I wish I could post them all :P