Conference misery::feline_v1

        Calicos, or three colors kitties are called 'money kitties.'

							Dan

    I remember somewhere a classification of Calicos by the number of
    different colors they have. Three colors being "worth" less than
    four or five. I know it was based on different amounts of money,
    but I don't remember how it went. Has anyone else heard of this?
    Trivia question - can you explain why you can never get a male
    Calico?

    I think that in order to be classified a money cat, the cat has
    to be tri-colored and the gold fur has to be in round splotches
    (like coins).
    
    Deb
     

    Re .2
    
    The reason that you (almost) never get male calicos (usually called tortie
    and white in the rest of the world, by the way) is genetic:
    
    The 'O' (Orange) gene is a sex-linked gene, which means that it can
    only be carried on the X chromosome. To get a tortie, a cat needs
    to have one 'O' and one 'o' (non-orange) gene in this gene pair.
    As a female cat has two X chromosomes, it can have both an 'O' and
    an 'o', and be a tortie. A female with two 'O' genes is a red tabby.
    A male (which only has one X chromosome and one Y chromosome) can
    only have one 'O' OR one 'o', and therefore is either red or non-red,
    not the "compromise" tortie. (This is somewhat simplified)
    
    Some genes in humans are similarly sex-linked, e.g. colour blindness
    and haemophilia.
    
    If you're wondering why the "almost" never... you can, very rarely,
    get a male with TWO X chromosomes as well as a Y, which could
    theoretically be a tortie. These males are usually sterile.
    
    There is an apparently true story about the early days of the Cat Fancy
    (British), when a tortoiseshell male cat was offered for sale at a very
    high price. He was bought by a keen breeder, but appeared in rather
    poor health. The breeder was advised to give him a bath in milk (don't
    ask me why). She was horrified when the milk turned a very strange
    colour - her "valuable" male tortoiseshell was a black-and-white who
    had acquired a partial coat of red paint! 

        I've changed the title of this topic to reflect the fact
        that it also (mostly) discusses calico cats, to assist
        future DIR/TITLE=CALICOers.
        
Jim Stratton, moderator
        

    I just had to tell you about my calico.  She will be nine years
    old next spring.  Her name (are you ready) is D.Q., but we call
    her "Q - ee" or "Q-ball", (she loves to lie on the pool table!) 
    I found her at the Dairy Queen (where I worked during in High 
    School).  Someone had dropped her off there (poor thing, she was 
    only a few weeks old).  Anyway, I brought her home and nine years 
    later I couldn't be happier that someone left her where I could 
    find her - she is absolutely a beautiful cat, as all calicos are.  
    
                                               The end!
    
     - Jenny - 
                                                                   

    Speaking of male calicos: 
    
    When I was first looking for a cat (5 years ago) I wanted a
    tortoiseshell or calico, so I spent a great deal of time talking with
    calico owners. One day 2 of these calico fanciers came into my store to
    tell me about a calico who had just given birth to a litter, including
    a male calico who was looking for a home.  Knowing how rare this is,
    though being very skeptical, I rushed over to the owners of the litter.
    This kitten was indeed a male, although I could not tell if it was a
    calico.  It had a lot of white, with patches of dark stripes and then
    on the ears and at the base of the tail was an orange color as orange
    as his orange tabby brothers.  Just in case, I took him. 
    
    As he got older, most of the orange has turned to brown, although
    some is still orange.  I was going to have him checked out by a
    vet, and keep him non-neutered until I knew for sure, but I forgot
    and took him in to be neutered when I took in my other cat.  Oh,
    well.  Perhaps I should see if my vet here in Colorado can check
    to see if he is an O and an o, as was described earlier (if it wouldn't
    hurt him).  It would be fun to know after all this time.
    
                  Carol

    A calico cat is a white cat with "unbroken patches of red and black"
    on its body.  A tortie is a cat thats coat consists of broken splotches
    of white, red and black.  A torbie is the same as above except it
    also has the tabby pattern in it ( M on forehead, "tiger" stripes
    etc).  A dilute calico is a white cat with unbroken patches of blue
    and cream on it's body.  A blue-cream is a tortie with the dilute
    gene.
    
    Some people refer to calico's as the money cat because of the notion
    that a male would be worth a lot of money.  But since male calico's
    are usually sterile, and if you did find one that wasn't you would
    still need to find someone who really wanted to buy him, I don't
    think there would be much of a market for one (monetarily speaking).
    
    Jo Ann

    Just out of curiosity, what is the "official" name for a cat like
    Fickle?  She is mostly white on the tummy, mostly black on the back,
    and her tail is striped grey and black.  She has spots of black
    and brown in various places.  I have noticed that the skin under
    the white fur is pink and the rest of her skin is grey, which gives
    her eyes a funny look as if one was larger than the other, since
    she has white fur around one eye and a black spot over the other
    one.  Even the pads of her feet and the roof of her mouth, which
    are mainly pink, have a few grey spots.  I just call her a "spotted
    cat" (along with other similar beasts, such as my friend's famous
    enormous tomcat, Bonzo, who at 27 lbs is much bigger even than Fickle).
    Some of Fickle's black spots on her back are faintly striped with
    grey, and she has her largest brown spot right in the middle of
    her tummy.

    Maybe a Torbie and White....
    
    Who knows!!!???
    
    

    Affectionately, I think I call her a "mutt".  Sounds like a cross
    between tiger, calico, etc.
    
    No one's probably come up with a name for that.  My cat Taffy was
    long haired and was brown, orange, black, white, even beige.  She 
    had a tiger face, but you couldn't call the rest of her tiger she
    was just a mass of colors.
    
    meow
    Kathy 

    A few years ago, Walter Chandoa, the noted photographer of felines,
    came up with a name for a striped or mottled mixed-breed: a "Moire
    Cat," named after the Moire patterns.
    
    "Mutt" should be left to the dogs (you don't call a lady cat a "bitch,"
    [at least  ordinarily :-)] do we?)
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
    

    "Moire cat"?  That's cute!  A friend's mostly-orange altered tom
    certainly had what looked like a more pattern on his back.  He was
    a handsome kitty!
    
    JFCL and Bonzo don't look much like a moire pattern, though!  Maybe
    they just are "spotted cats".  Bonzo's fur is coarse, but The Fickle
    is as soft as a rabbit.

    	The use of mutt for a cat is legit only if you are a cat
    owner/lover.  If anyone else said it about my cats, I'd have something
    to say about it, but when I use it affectionately it's OK.  Sort
    of like when I call Sammie Brain-damaged it's OK, but if Gary picks
    on him I rush to his defense.  (And vice versa for Gandalf, my
    husband's cat, also known as the most brain-damaged cat in the world.
    ;-) (Wait til Gary reads this!))
                  
    tlh
    

    As far as pedigree goes, The Fickle has none whatsoever, so it doesn't
    bother me to call her a "mutt cat"; that's basically what she is.
    (Nebula is half-Siamese and half unknown.  She's a "mutt" too!)
    I was just curious about whether there was a name for her coloration
    pattern, since it is a very common one, but maybe there isn't. 
    (Most "spotted cats" like The Fickle are also double-toed or partially
    double-toed, although she is not; I think that that mutation is
    only common in New England, but I do not especially like the looks
    of the polydactyl feet, not too mention how much more trouble it
    would be to clip all those extra claws!)

    Re .8
    	Just wanted to note that a tortie has no white on it, just black
    and red - the CFA persian standard for torties read: 'a black cat
    with patches of red and cream' - the cream actually being the paler
    parts of a natural red coat.  The blue cream is the same - but with
    the dilute colors.  There is a color in some associations or breeds
    called a torie and white - which is like a calico but with the red
    and black 'brindled' in, instead of patched.
    Torbies are actually 'patched tabbies' many of the interestingly
    colored cats in the other replies here may be patched tabbie.  they
    can be almost any combination of colors, and can have white in them
    too.
    
    Re: Male calicos.  I have heard that there is a male calico in one
    of about 14,000 cats. Not many!  I have a friend who breeds bicol
    and calico persians who has a male dilute (blue and cream) calico.
    The only way this can happen is if the male has an extra female
    chromosome, i.e. XXY instead of XY.  The orange (red) or cream gene
    is carried ONLY by the X gene, therefore a male can be red and white,
    (considered one color because the white is just a spotting factor)
    but not red and black (torie) or calico.  My friend's cat has the
    XXY configuration - verified by U. Penn. Vet hospital.  She had
    to have lots of tests done (harmless ones!) to prove to CFA that
    she had what she thought she had, so that she could get a registration
    number for him.  She finally did get one, and did show him as an
    AOV (Any Other Variety) persian, as male calico is not a usual color...
    The best part is that he DID sire several litters, before she had
    him neutered!  Everyone wanted to see if he would be able to throw
    both color genes.  Weel he never threw the cream gene EVER in about
    25 kittens.  He should have been a blue/white male genetically,
    and that's how he bred.  He is now living happily as someones prized
    household pet.  How much did he sell for?  the cost of neutering!
    What's his name?  Boy George, of course. - What else????!!!!
    
    Molly 

RE: .-1

The XXY sex chromosome configuration also occurs among humans (at about the
same ratio as among cats, I believe) and is known as Kleinfelter's Syndrome.
Those with the syndrome, cats or people, are nominally male but are sterile.
The XXY defect is often accompanied by other congenital abnormalities as well.

What we need is to have some enterprising genetic engineer move the color
gene complex off the X chromosome onto one of the autosomes.

--PSW

    Re.: .9
    
    Your cat sounds like a brown tabby and white.  Would be listed as
    a bicolor since the brown tabby markings are considered (as they
    should be) a single color.