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Cat
Overpopulation
According to the Humane
Society of the United States, 3-4 million cats and dogs are euthanized each
year in the United States and many more are confined to cages in shelters
because there are significantly more animals being born than there are homes. Spaying
or neutering pets helps keep the overpopulation down.[41]
Local humane societies, SPCA's and other animal protection organizations urge
people to spay or neuter their pets and to adopt animals from shelters instead
of purchasing them.
Varieties
of domestic cat
Cat with a van
pattern.
The list of cat breeds is
quite large: most cat registries recognize between 30 and 40 breeds of cats,
and several more are in development, with one or more new breeds being
recognized each year on average, having distinct features and heritage. The
owners and breeders of show cats compete to see whose animal bears the closest
resemblance to the "ideal" definition of the breed (see selective
breeding). Because of common crossbreeding in populated areas, many cats are
simply identified as belonging to the homogeneous breeds of domestic longhair
and domestic shorthair, depending on their type of fur. In the United Kingdom
and Australia, non-purebred cats are referred in slang as moggies (derived from
"Maggie", short for Margaret, reputed to have been a common name for
cows and calves in 18th-century England and latter applied to housecats during
the Victorian era).[42] In the United States, a
non-purebred cat is sometimes referred to in slang as a barn or alley cat, even
if it is not a stray. Cats come in a variety of colors and patterns. These are
physical properties and should not be confused with a breed of cat. Some
original cat breeds that have a distinct phenotype that is the main type
occurring naturally as the dominant domestic cat type in their region of origin
are considered as subspecies and also have received names as such in
nomenclature. These cat breeds are:
- F. catus anura - the Manx
- F. catus siamensis - the Siamese
- F. catus cartusenensis - the Chartreux
- F. catus angorensis - the Turkish Angora
More recent subspecies like
the Sokoke, Singapura, Norwegian Forest Cat or Maine Coon did not receive any
official nomenclature any more albeit they should be considered as subspecies
as well.
Coat
patterns
Cat coat genetics can
produce a variety of coat patterns. Some of the most common are:
A male
tuxedo cat.
A male
bicolor cat.
Bicolor,
Tuxedo and Van
This pattern varies between the tuxedo cat
which is mostly black with a white chest, and possibly markings on the face and
paws/legs, all the way to the Van pattern (so named after the Lake Van
area in Turkey, which gave rise to the Turkish Van breed), where the only
colored parts of the cat are the tail (usually including the base of the tail
proper), and the top of the head (often including the ears). There are several
other terms for amounts of white between these two extremes, such as harlequin
or jellicle cat. Bicolor cats can have as their primary (non-white)
color black, red, any dilution thereof and tortoiseshell (see below for
definition).
A mackerel
tabby clearly showing the characteristic "M" of the breed.
A classic
example of a mackerel tabby.
Tabby cat
Striped, with a variety of patterns. The
classic "blotched" tabby (or "marbled") pattern is the most
common and consists of butterflies and bullseyes. The "mackerel" or
"striped" tabby is a series of vertical stripes down the cat's side
(resembling the fish). This pattern broken into spots is referred to as a
"spotted" tabby. Finally, the tabby markings may look like a series
of ticks on the fur, thus the "ticked" tabby, which is almost
exclusively associated with the Abyssinian breed of cats. The worldwide
evolution of the cat means that certain types of tabby are associated with
certain countries; for instance, blotched tabbies are quite rare outside NW
Europe, where they are the most common type.
This tortoiseshell
cat has black-orange-white fur and green eyes.
Tortoiseshell
and Calico
This cat is also known as a Calimanco cat or
Clouded Tiger cat, and by the nickname "tortie". In the cat fancy, a
tortoiseshell cat is randomly patched over with red (or its dilute form, cream)
and black (or its dilute blue) mottled throughout the coat. Additionally, the
cat may have white spots in its fur, which make it a "tortoiseshell and
white" cat or, if there is a significant amount of white in the fur and
the red and black colors form a patchwork rather than a mottled aspect, the cat
will be called a "calico". All calicos are tortoiseshell (as they
carry both black and red), but not all tortoiseshells are calicos (which
requires a significant amount of white in the fur and patching rather than
mottling of the colors). The calico is also sometimes called a "tricolor
cat". The Japanese refer to this pattern as mi-ke (meaning
"triple fur"), while the Dutch call these cats lapjeskat
(meaning "patches cat"). A true tricolor must consist of three
colors: a reddish color, dark or light; white; and one other color, typically a
brown, black or blue, as described by American breeder Barbara French, writing
for the Cat Fanciers community.[43] Both tortoiseshell
and calico cats are typically female because the coat pattern is the result of
differential X chromosome inactivation in females (which, as with all normal
female mammals, have two X chromosomes). Those male tortoiseshells that are
created are usually sterile; conversely, cats where the overall color is ginger
(orange) are commonly male (roughly in a 3:1 ratio). In a litter sired by a
ginger tom, the females will be tortoiseshell or ginger. See "Tortoiseshell
and Tricolour Cats" for an extensive genetic explanation for tricolor
cats, and detailing the possible combinations of coloring.[44]
A flame
point Siamese mix.
Colorpoint
The colorpoint pattern is most commonly
associated with Siamese cats, but may also appear in any domestic cat. A
colorpoint cat has dark colors on the face, ears, feet, and tail, with a
lighter version of the same color on the rest of the body, and possibly some
white. The exact name of the colorpoint pattern depends on the actual color, so
there are seal points (dark brown), chocolate points (warm lighter brown), blue
points (dark gray), lilac points (silvery gray-pink), flame points (orange),
and tortie (tortoiseshell mottling) points, among others. This pattern is the
result of a temperature sensitive mutation in one of the enzymes in the metabolic
pathway from tryptophan to pigment, such as melanin; thus, little or no pigment
is produced except in the extremities or "points", where the skin is
slightly cooler. For this reason, colorpoint cats tend to darken with age as
bodily temperature drops; also, the fur over a significant injury may sometimes
darken or lighten as a result of temperature change.
The tryptophan pathway also produces neurotransmitters,
thus mutations in the early parts of that pathway may affect not only pigment,
but also neurological development. This results in a higher frequency of cross-eyes
among colorpoint cats, as well as the high frequency of deafness in white cats
and the high frequency of cross-eyes in white tigers. (This is not related to albinism).
Body
types
Cats can also come in
several body types, ranging between two extremes:
Oriental
Not a specific breed, but any cat with an
elongated slender build, almond-shaped eyes, long nose, large ears (the Siamese
and oriental shorthair breeds are examples of this).
Cobby
Any cat with a short, muscular, compact build,
roundish eyes, short nose, and small ears. Persians and Exotics are two prime
examples of such a body type.
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cat&action=history
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