What Color is your Cat?

Did you know that there are hundreds of color combinations for cats? Last night I taught the 4-H Cat club about describing your cat's coat color and pattern. As I was preparing to teach this I realized that you could literally go on forever with discussing cat color. So I stayed with the basics. First to really appreciate cat coat color you need a small lesson in genetics. It all goes cellular when one talks about what a cat looks like. Yes little genes cause all those color combinations. But the Basics are that there are two main colors Black and red. (The CFA does not use the terms orange or marmalade for cats. so if you have a red cat you want to show you need to call it red not orange.) Now see this first cat photo. This beautiful Maine coon kitten is not black. Did you think that? Well she is really a Torbie. Why? Because she has red and white in her coat. It's hard to see but it is.

Red and Black colors are dominant genes. Their recessive genes are Cream and Blue (there are no grey cats in the cat fancy people. It's blue. Don't ask me why, it just is.)

White is not a color. That's right. White is a masking gene that masks the true color of your cat. If you cat has even a small spot of color then you will know what it's true color is. Also Tabby is not a color and not a breed. Tabby is a coat pattern. This little cat that used to visit our house (we called her cookie dough) Is a calico cat. Since she has black, red and white. 99% of all calico's are female.

Here is a blue with white tabby cat. This was the cat we originally wanted to adopt when we adopted a cat, but she was spoken for. And I have to say I'm glad because our amber is the best cat.

And here she is the Queen. She is a brown patched tabby with white. My daughter did a great job showing her to the 4-H club last night. It was her first time showing her by herself. She was so happy that Amber did not try to bite her. Every now and then she likes to give a little nip if she is unhappy. But she behaved herself. She got herself a lot of kitty treats. Isn't she just beautiful? I have been having fun learning a lot about cats. If you are interested in learning about cats you can check out the CFA web site it contains some great information.

If you would like to help out shelter cat's go to Freekibblekat. You get a trivia question each day and that helps feed cat's in shelters.

I have two more days of work till a long needed weekend. My husband only made 4 hours at the new site yesterday. He has a lot to learn but the new manager seems to really like him. He says he will help my husband get the hours he needs we will see. My husband has been trying to apply to a job on line but is having difficulties getting into the site, hopefully that will be figured out soon. We continue to move forward, hoping that there will be something good at the end of our struggles. We continue to be thankful for what we have. Here is a great little clip I found about being thankful. What are you thankful for.

I'm thankful for all that has been happening in my life as I know it has been making me a stronger person, it has shown me how much I love and adore my husband, how blessed we have been, and that we can survive despite it all. So friends what are you thankful for?

Hope you enjoyed the little lesson on cat color.