Greetings from Falls Church, Virginia!

I've started this blog about where my calico cats and I live. Enjoy!

Veterinarian Links

We'd like for you to send us the details of the best vets: their name, URL, and location, and we'll put them in our links section!

The Travels of Cats…

Cats like to travel! Here are some stories with happy endings. Be careful with your cats, especially when moving or planning a trip…

In November of 2005, a cat named Emily from Appleton, Wisconsin, wandered into a factory and was trapped inside a cargo container bound for Nancy, France. Emily was rescued by cat-friendly French employees and flown back home.

In October of 2006, a cat named Neo, from Crowley, Texas, was trapped in a neighbor's moving van and ended up in Longmont, Colorado. Luckily, Neo was returned to his owners.

In March of 2007, a cat named Rascal wandered onto a freight train that had stopped outside her house in South Bend, Indiana and wound up in Chattanooga, Tennesee. Rascal was also rescued and reunited with her family.

Read about the adventures of the cat in the picture here.

Good for Humans, BAD for Cats!

Giving human medications to cats can be a very bad idea.

Certain common "human foods" are also bad for cats:

Onions, Garlic, & Related Root Vegetables

Onions contain a substance (N-propyl disulphide) which destroys red blood cells in the cat, causing a form of anemia called Heinz body anemia. Garlic contains a similar substance in a lesser amount.

Tomatoes, Green (raw Potatoes)

These foods are members of the Solanaceae family of plants, which includes the Deadly Nightshade, and contain a bitter, poisonous alkaloid called Glycoalkaloid Solanine, which can cause violent lower gastrointestinal symptoms. Just one cherry tomato could be fatal!

Grapes and Raisins

These foods' toxicity has mainly been found in dogs, in quantities of varying amounts. The ASPCA advises: "As there are still many unknowns with the toxic potential of grapes and raisins, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center advises not giving grapes or raisins to pets in any amount."

Milk

Although milk is not toxic to cats, it may have adverse effects. Simply put, adult cats fed a nutritious diet don't need milk, and many cats are lactose-intolerant, which means that the lactose in milk and milk products produces stomach upset, cramps, and gassiness. If your cat loves milk, and begs for it, a small amount of cream may be okay, two or three times a week.

Chocolate

It's becoming more widely known that chocolate is very toxic to cats. Theobromine is the offending substance here.

Are All Calico Cats Female?

Half a cat's chromosomes come from the mother, and half come from the father. The gene that determines a cat's coloring is found on the X chromosome.

Female cats have two X chromosomes, and each one can carry a different color. In calicos, one X has the black gene and the other X has the orange gene. At some point in the female cat's development, one X chromosome becomes inactive. The timing of this determines the amount of calico patches.

So calico coloring isn't that uncommon among female cats. It's just a matter of the right chromosomal combination. In males, things are more complicated because they only have one X chromosome and it's never inactivated.

A male cat can be calico if it's created with two X chromosomes and a Y, allowing one X to be inactivated. This is a genetic defect known as XXY, and it's very rare. Only one out of every 3,000 calicos is male!

Cats Are Not Peas

It is so unfortunate that Laura L. Gould's book, Cats Are Not Peas: A Calico History of Genetics is out of print and can't be found for much less than $80! This is an excellent book for any cat lover, and certainly for any lover of calico cats!

And yes, the title of her book is the inspiration for the title of this blog!

Cats and Human Medications: Bad Idea!

Biologically, cats are very unlike humans. Just looking at their reflective eyes with vertical pupils should be enough to remind us of that!

The ancestor of the domestic cat is a species of wild cat found in the deserts of Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Syria. These animals were domesticated by farmers who realized their value in controlling grain destroying pests such as mice and insects.

Cats are still very much desert creatures. They can go for long periods of time without eating or drinking, as is confirmed time and time again when an unfortunate cat is forced to make an involuntary cross-country journey on a truck or in a shipping container. All cat owners are familiar the highly concentrated feline urine, which is indicative of how efficiently cats process and conserve water.

Medications are very often species specific. Similar species can quite often benefit from the same medication, but the more different two species are, the more unlikely it is that they can share the same medications.

Given the great differences between cats and humans, human medication should never be given to a cat unless specifically prescribed by a veterinarian. The risk of causing further harm or even death to the cat are just too great.

WELCOME

This is my blog-mostly about calico cats, but also cats in general!