Noticing the cat

[nancylebov]

I've been living with Ra, a Himalayan (persian with siamese markings) for some seven years or so. I'd assumed he was monochrome--the same sort of brown, but ranging from cream to very dark brown on his face, tail, and legs, though generally darkening as he gets older, which I believe is typical for Siamese.

Last night, I noticed that he's actually got a little cinnamon-colored shading on his head and some steel gray on his back. I don't *think* cats change hue with time.

Some friends have a white and yellow splotchy cat--they didn't notice that the yellow was tabby until I pointed it out.

Who else has suddenly noticed completely obvious details?

Comments

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

I lived with Jasper, a black and white tom, for 4 years before i realized he has a VERY thik undercoat, in grey and white, which accouts for most of his shedding and the one matting incident, which is what brought the undercoat to my attention in the first place. That was Columbus Day 1996.

[cellio]

Kittens might be different, but my "gray and white except for the striped tail" cat was close to six months old before I noticed the tabby stripes in his other (non-tail) gray.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

My cats have definitely changed color over time. Sailor was a blakc cat who developed more and more rusty coloring, and Loki is an orange cat who was definitely pinkish as a kitten and is now sort of more beige (but never actually orange).

[kfitzwarin.livejournal.com]

My black cat is doing that too - she's getting sort of sandy-brown in places, like she's fading from lying in the sun too much.

[(Anonymous)]

IIRC, Siamese cats look that way because they have a mutant albino gene that is only albino in warm parts of the cat, and produces pigment in colder parts. Maybe something like that?

- Captain Button