Original Post: L, May 30, 2018
Hey, everyone! As I'm sure you're aware by now, Ember is away in Costa Rica until June 25th doing some science things. Let's all take a collective moment to pray she does not catch some weird monkey disease. Anyway, until she returns I'll be handling the general management and weekly updates to the site.
May was a relatively quiet month due in large part to the Webs glitch that prevents new members from joining the site. Still, we've seen a bit of an uptick in activity these past couple of weeks as we all approach summer break. Hopefully this holds and Webs is able to resolve the glitch before Ember's return. We saw a border skirmish between MoonClan and EclipseClan that resulted in the death of a few MoonClan cats. There was also a negotiation between Tigerstar and Hollowstar that saw Pumapaw returned to MoonClan. Over the coming month tensions should remain high and we should see further border skirmishes break out between the clans.
For this Monthly Meow I will be presenting my long overdue "Guide" on how to create a cat with a realistic appearance. This comes from a touch of research on the Interwebs, but mostly from first hand experiences. As some of you may know I work at a humane society (animal shelter) where I mostly deal with animal intake, behavioral evaluations, and assist on the data analysis/ PR team. I see 100+ cats on a monthly basis and would like to think I've picked up a thing or two over the course of my employment.
I will be briefly going over fur color and patterns and eye colors:
Realistic Fur Color & Patterns:
Fur Length:
Cats that are accustomed to living outside typically have much thicker and shinier coats than indoor cats.
Short: Most common fur length for feral cats.
Medium: Can be found in feral cats, likely to suffer from matting and debris tangled in their fur.
Long: Relatively unrealistic for feral cats. Long fur becomes easily matted and tangled. Speaking from personal experience, a long haired cat is automatically disqualified from our Barn Cat Program for that very reason.
Fur Color:
White: Uncommon
Red/ Ginger/ Orange: Common, often found in males (but not exclusively) as this fur color gene in females usually results in tortoiseshell/ calico patterning.
Buff/ Cream/ Sand: Common, a lighter variation of red.
Brown/ Tan/ Chocolate: Common
Grey/ Silver/ Blue: Common
Black: Common
Albino: Rare, a genetic mutation in which the hair and skin do not have pigmentation.
Melanistic: Rare, a genetic mutation in which the hair and skin have a dark pigmentation (melanin). Hard to distinguish from a solid black cat, as they do not possess the tell-tale eye colors of an albino cat.
Pattern: Solid: The entire cat is one color with no tabby markings/ white patches.Bicolor: A color pattern in which a cat has one of previously listed colors and white. Tabby cats can have some white on them but are not considered bicolor. Tabby: Varying types of stripes overlaying a solid base color.
Ticked (“Agouti”;): Very light, dotted pattern that changes to tiger tabby stripes at the legs, tail, and face.
Classic: Also known as marble tabby markings these markings create thick, swirling patterns.
Tiger (“Mackerel”;): Most common tabby marking. These markings are thin, vertical stripes that sometimes fade off into spots or slight ticking towards the sides/ stomach.
Spotted: Uncommon, often found in purebred exotic breeds such as bengals, savannahs, and ocicats. Come in traditional, rosetted, and oceloid.
Tricolor: In cats, the gene for coat color is found on the X sex chromosome. It is for this reason that tricolor cats will almost always be female. Tricolor males are the result of a genetic mutation and are largely infertile.
Calico: Composed of varying shades of whites, blacks, and oranges.
Traditional Calico: Black and ginger splotches over a white coat. May be small, large, with any frequency.
Dilute Calico: Silver and buff splotches over a white coat.
Tortoiseshell: Composed of varying shades of blacks, oranges, and whites.
Traditional Tortoiseshell: Black coat with ginger ticking.
Dilute Tortoiseshell: Grey coat with buff ticking.
Torbie: Tortoiseshell/ tabby mixture. The cat will have traditional calico or tortoiseshell colors with faint tabby markings visible in the ginger/ cream splotches.
Colorpoint: The body of the cat is white/ cream while the colored points are located at the face, ears, tail, and legs.
Seal: Dark gray points.
Lilac: Light gray points.
Chocolate: Dark brown points.
Flame: Orange points.
Realistic Eye Color:
All kittens are born with blue eyes. They retain this color until about 6-7 weeks of age.
Cat eye color is on a spectrum, for example there are not just blue and green eyes, but varying shades of color between blue and green. With that being said, I will go over the primary colors.
Purebred cats tend to have more intense/ vibrant eye colors.
Blue: Rare
Generally speaking, color point cats (such as Siamese and Snowshoe) are the most likely to have blue eyes. Bicolor cats and all white cats are also capable of having blue eyes.
Ojos Azules- Rare mutation first discovered in New Mexico among feral cat populations in which cats have developed blue eyes without possessing the color point/ bicolor genes that suppress pigmentation.
Green: Uncommon Hazel: Common Yellow: Common Orange: Uncommon Albino: Rare
Blue-eyed albino
Lilac-eyed albino
Pink-eyed albino
Heterochromia: A genetic mutation in which the irises are different colors.
Complete Heterochromia: Both eyes are a completely different color.
Sectoral Heterochromia: One or both eyes have a section of the iris that is a different color.
Central Heterochromia: The center of the iris is a different color than the outside.
JUNE CEREMONIES: MoonClanApprentices:Quietkit, Hornetkit- Early JuneBlack-kit- Mid JuneWarriors:Sapphirepaw, Duskpaw, Castorpaw, Servalpaw, Pumapaw- Early JuneTundrapaw, Daypaw, Nightpaw, Flutteringpaw- Mid JuneBirdy, Swift Willow, Ravenpaw, Rustlepaw- Late JuneElders: Tigerstar, Nightfrost, HoshiDeaths:Silversnow, Autumn-night, Batear SunClanApprentices:Scorchkit, Driftkit, Fenkit- Mid JuneWarriors:Ragingpaw, Black Magic- Early JuneRainpaw, Harepaw- Mid JuneFirpaw, Rabbitpaw, Clatterpaw- Late JuneElders:Apep, Daisybelle, EarthClanApprentices: Anemonekit- Early JuneCharlie- Mid JuneWarriors:Speckledpaw, Lostpaw, Blueberrypaw, Plumpaw- Early JuneMidnight of Peaceful Dreams, Lionpaw, Leopardpaw, Oddpaw, Notchedpaw- Mid JuneCariboupaw, Elkpaw- Late JuneElders:Mercilesswinds, MidnightscreamDeaths:Brokenfang, Pondstep EclipseClanApprentices:Flowingkit, Blazingkit- Mid JuneWarriors:Kestrelpaw, Urutupaw, Max, Rascal, Moonlight, Benthal- Early JuneSlypaw- Late June
Comments