If my understanding of red tabby inheritance is correct, and Spot (not
being red tabby) is the father, *and* she has female kittens, they
should be tortie or calico.  The males should be red tabby.

All true, but red tabby is special: it's sex linked - heterozygotic
females are torties; homozygotic females are ted tabby.  The only way
her female kittens could be tortie is if the father is not red tabby
(the only red tabby male around here is her brother Siegfried), and
the only other intact tom I've seen hanging around is Spot.

It's interesting that it happens in this way. A question to those of you
who are knowledgeable about genetics: is this a case of mosaicism? If so,
then I can understand why the expression of the genes comes out different,
even when the genes are identical - the outcome of which X gets expressed
in which cell is not completely pre-determined.

If that is the reason for the discrepancy, would a cloned male cat look
identical to the original?

And if mosaicism isn't the reason, I'd be interested in hearing what does
cause this to happen. (In lay terms, please! I only know enough to make
me dangerous. :))

Joyce

I'm not worried, I think he's just channeling Gregor Mendel. :)

"Pat" wrote:

Cindy (the grieving mother)  continued "stealing" the kittens until my cat,
Scooter, finally gave up and didn't even try to keep taking them back. But
Cindy apparently didn't have much milk so they would go to Scooter when they
were hungry. What really amazed me was how Cindy didn't mind the kittens
kneading her incision with their claws. And it was a very long incision.

Cindy's operation was around April 12th. Her kittens had been due around
April 5th. My cat's kittens were born early on April 2nd. The ex and I
separated on July 10th, and I took our three cats - Scooter, Spider (another
female), and Sandy (huge orange tabby daddycat) - plus all the kittens
(including a litter from Spider), 17 cats in all, and left Cindy and one of
her previous offspring, Yogi, with the ex. We were apart for about six
weeks, and by the end of that time, Cindy seemed OK.

Interesting side note to this story: Our next-door neighbors were feeding
Cindy, Yogi, Scooter, Spider, and Sandy just before all this trouble began.
We were on a trip in Mexico but planned to be back in time for Scooter's due
date in early April. While we were gone, Scooter "moved in" with the
neighbors, who had two grey female cats, both of whom were also pregnant.

One of the neighbors' cats gave birth to six black furballs the morning of
April 1st, and Scooter went behind their sofa late that night and silently
gave birth to her own kittens. We had returned earlier that evening and
learned that Scooter had been staying next door, but we didn't go to collect
her until the next morning, at which time we found her with five orange
tabby and one black baby.

The neighbors showed me their cat's litter, and they were surprised to find
only five kittens instead of six. We couldn't find black kitten #6.

Months later, when the neighbors decided to rearrange their living room,
they found one mummified orange tabby kitten, still in its birth sac,
underneath the sofa. Mind you, this was in Arizona where it's so dry in the
spring that any dead animal will simply dry up rather than rot, which is why
no one ever smelled it.

So what apparently happened was Scooter "lost" one of hers during the
birthing process, then during the night went to the other mamacat's box and
helped herself to a replacement!

So don't tell me they don't notice when they lose a baby!!!

Here, they recommended spaying/neutering at *one year* old when Frank
was young! I don't know what other vets recommend now, but the
feline-only vet that I use 'fixed' Miranda and Caliban at six months. I
don't think I could find a vet that would do it earlier here in
Helsinki. I agree that they should rethink this.

That's a good observation.  I think perhaps it might have to
do with significant improvement in health care and
nutrition.  It is true for humans too.  It is not at all
unusual, now, in the States, to have girls begin their
menses as early as 8 or 9 years old.  Forty years
ago, that was unheard of.  Forty years ago, in
Norway, the average age was 17 yrs.  With the
improvements in nutrition and health care,
humans are maturing faster and at an earlier
age, so why not for cats too?

--tension

I brought that up during her examination, and the vet said OK, if I
were willing to accept the increased anesthesia risk.  Frankly, I am,
and I wish he had said that much earlier.

If you decide to let her go through with the pregnancy -- I have a
couple bits of advice, if I may.

First, don't let them leave your house until they are spayed or
neutered! People say they will, then don't have the money or some other
more important thing pops up.

Second, tell the new parents that they can return the cats at any time,
that they are NOT to end up in shelter! Let them know the door is always
open, and keep in touch with them at least ever year.

I couldn't reach one person who we placed a cat with, and it took a bit
of work to find her. Turns out she was in the process of moving to
another state and had given the cat to a co-worker. The cat freaked out
and the co-worker was scared of him, and the new owner was just about
ready to turn him into a shelter. This was 3 years after we had placed
him in "the perfect" home.

I was able to drive down and get him, but it was stressful. I'm glad
that I made the effort though because he would not have made it in a
shelter. Since we originally rescued him as a kitten, I felt somewhat
responsible to follow up on him and make sure he had a good life. I hope
you feel the same way.

Rhonda

I say 3 kittens on the 30th.

Tweed