Update: Cat Woes (Part 2)

[diadem_chi]

Shima has been on her medication for over two weeks now and it really, really has helped to take the edge off.  We of course had the vet give her a full work up before trying medication, and it only confirmed that there was nothing physically wrong with her -- she's just a super high strung, territorial, psycho-cat. * sigh *  We were told that

Comments

[bethesaurusrex]

Semantically? A cat can't be half calico. Either it is or it isn't - calico just a coloring (red (or cream) and black (or brown), with white).

[bethesaurusrex]

Ugh reply early. Also, congrats on the progress!

[diadem_chi]

Not sure how to classify Shima and Shiro then... we were told they were half calico, half tabby. They have orange/red, black, and white calico spot patterns, but also interspersed with tabby stripping. It's a very odd coat.

[bethesaurusrex]

They are both calico colored tabbies. Calico is the red/gray combo, Tabby is the stripes. The vast majority of calicos are female, because color is X chromosome determined and red and black are co-dominant - the only way (aside from random mutations) a cat can have both red and black is to have two X chromosomes. The gene for tabby striping is non-sex related. If you ever pick up their loose hair, or just pull loose hair off them, the individual hairs will have what is referred to as agouti patterned stripes.

More than you probably ever wanted to know about cat genetics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabby
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_coat_genetics

They are both so freaking pretty.