Cool Calicos

Hey everyone, Kiwi here.

Today I found out something very very interesting about Calico cats. Calico colouring is determined...not by genetics... but by events inside a mother cat's womb. It all depends on whether the orange gene is activated or not. If not, the calico will not be a calico and will be a regular black tabby, grey tabby, or black cat with white. Who knows how this ties in to the whole torti-tude thing, but hey. Calicos are just special. If the orange/ginger gene IS activated, the orange spots will be randomly splotched across the coat of the kitten fetus. Voila. A calico or tortie results. And yes, I am typing all of this off memory haha. 

The very first cloned cat "Carbon Copy" or CC for short, was a brown tabby with white. Her gene donor/"Mother" was a calico named "Rainbow" who looked alot like me. CC's other mom was a tortie named Allie who carried and nursed CC. Funny thing was, even though Rainbow and CC were genetically identical, their colours were not, because CC's orange gene was inactivated. Here's a picture of Rainbow, CC, and CC and Allie.

The REALLY confusing thing is, how is it then that I look like such a carbon copy of my mum, Katie, if my orange spots are totally randomized???? Here, take a look....

It's not a great picture of Mom but we really do look exactly like each other. My sisters have got more of my daddy in them... :)