Greetings from Falls Church, Virginia!

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

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!

WELCOME

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