Calico

White, black and orange, arranged by no two cats the same way twice. The pattern comes from two coat-colour genes riding the X chromosome, which is also why calicos are, with rare exceptions, female — a cat needs two X chromosomes to carry both colours at once.

Spotted in the wild

A calico known locally only as "the patchwork one" holds territorial rights over exactly one sunny windowsill and defends it with a look, never a claw.


← Back home