Phinny, short for "Phenomenon," is shown off at the Escondido Humane Society.
Posted on 08/08/2007 8:10:49 PM PDT by Daffynition
ESCONDIDO - He looks like your standard alley cat, nothing to write home about.
But officials at the Escondido Humane Society say he is a rare specimen, “a once-in-a-lifetime” cat like none they have ever seen before. They call him Phinny, for phenomenon.
It wasn't until they were ready to spay Phinny that they found out he needed neutering instead. And that's how he got his name.
Phinny, you see, is a male tortoiseshell, a tricolor cat. He's not quite the missing link in the cat world, but is undoubtedly a rare quirk of nature, for reasons of genetics.
“In my 15 years of working with animals, this is the first live male tortoiseshell that I've ever seen,” said Staci Fitzgerald, the society's director of animal care. “He's absolutely striking, a real genetic anomaly.
Andrew Klotz, a veterinarian at Acacia Animal Health Center in Escondido, agreed that Phinny isn't your typical cat.
“It's pretty rare,” said Klotz, who has seen only one male tortoiseshell in 23 years of practice.
That's because genetically speaking, Phinny is deformed.
Tortoiseshell cats, often called torties, have coats with a splotchy combination of black, orange and white. They are almost always females.
That's because their coat is the result of a combination of two forms of one gene carried only on the X chromosome, one of two that determine sex. The coloration expresses itself when one X carrying one form of the gene and another carrying the second form combine. Two X chromosomes equal female cat.
Because normal male cats are XY, a tortie is impossible.
A few cats are born with a genetic abnormality: an extra sex chromosome, an X-X-Y combination. If both Xs carry the gene for tricolor, a male tortie like Phinny can result. About one in 3,000 tortoiseshells are males, many experts said.
The extra chromosome, called Klinefelter's Syndrome, can come accompanied by deformities. Many cats with it don't exhibit the coloration or develop abnormally, Fitzgerald said.
“Either it doesn't happen or they die,” she said.
Phinny appears healthy and is developing normally, said Abigail Rowland, director of development at the humane society.
If you're thinking of adopting Phinny and cashing in, though, forget about it. Because only one in about 10,000 male torties, by some estimates, are fertile, they have no breeding value. The few that aren't sterile can't produce more male tortoiseshells.
“It's a curiosity, more of a novelty than anything else, Klotz said.
Although Rowland has seen male torties advertised on the Internet for thousands of dollars, she said they are really no more valuable than any cat, except as a subject of conversation.
Phinny, who is about 6 months old, was found abandoned in Escondido along with his brother, an orange tabby named Bullseye.
Fitzgerald said staff members at the Humane Society referred to the cats as a playful brother-and-sister duo. It wasn't until they prepared Phinny for spaying that they discovered how unusual he was.
“It was cool,” said an animated Fitzgerald, who called friends to share her find.
Phinny is available for adoption at the summer special of $55, which includes neutering, vaccinations, a veterinarian's exam, a bag of food, deworming, microchipping and a microchipping registration fee.
“All of our animals are the same price, whether they're purebred, rare or Heinz 57 mutt variety,” Rowland said.
Phinny, short for "Phenomenon," is shown off at the Escondido Humane Society.
Kitty ping. and does anyone here owned by a cat practice strategic deworming? I just saw the term yesterday and it sounds very odd.
My father told me years ago that all tri-colored cats were female. I’ll have to print this article to prove to him that even HE can sometimes be wrong. But, at 90 years of age, he has very seldom been wrong.
On second thought, I won’t tell him about this. At his age, I would hate to disallusion him.
kitty cat ping.
*singing*
“Phenomenon - doo, doo, doo-doo-doo!
Phenomenon - doo doo-doo-doo!
Phenomenon - doo, doo, doo-doo-doo
doo-doo-doo
doo-doo-doo
doo-doo-doo doo-doo doo, doo, doooo, doo!”
I thought calico cats were at least three colors. We had a calico cat when I was a kid.
I practice “wrap the cat in a towel and wear leather gloves” method of deworming. My cats hate the medication. Even though they are on flea medication (Frontline) year round I still worm once a year.
I heard that there is a new topical medication(on the skin) just released for deworming. Has to be better than my method, which means picking up little pieces of the medication they hack up on the carpet. Ick.
If I’m not mistaken strategic deworming means continuing to worm a cat for prevention.
OK, from the Bayer site for Profender,their new topical worming medication:
“Strategic deworming is a planned parasite control program that involves targeted deworming of pets to treat and control clinical disease and limit environmental contamination. “
That's a new one on me.
I’ve owned kitty cats since I was just a little squid myself. We’ve never had to de-worm. I’ve never had a cat with worms. I can’t understand how you’d be experiencing this phenomenon. You mean, they ate something disgusting and wild (a nice mouse mousse?) and picked up worms from it? Ick. Glad I keep my herd in.
His least favorite thing that happened that day was getting his temperature taken.
:-O
Three of my four cats are former rescues / strays, and all needed deworming. There’s a lot of yuck in the world.
DancesWithCats, in our area, which is temperate, fleas are a problem year around.Even thought we keep our lawn mowed, and treat it for bugs, our neighbor’s don’t. Our vet says that they can piggyback on human clothes, legs, etc and once they get into the house they go for the cat. Fleas are a carrier of tapeworms, and kittens get roundworms from their mama’s milk. They don’t have to be outdoor cats to get fleas and worms, all of my cats are indoor cats. Have not had to deal with fleas since we started on the Frontline.
Really!? Wow. All mine are rescues and all have been spayed/neutured and have had their shots so were thoroughly checked out by our vet and none of them have ever had worms. I guess we’ve been lucky! Ear mites? Yes. Fleas? Yes. No worms. How do you know if they have worms? They don’t gain weight? It pops out in their stool?
One year we had a bad flea infestation and had to call pest control out 2 or 3 times to spray, spray, spray and we Frontlined the herd as well for several months in a row. That was AWFUL!! But ... no worms. We’ve just been lucky I guess. Or missed the signs?
Torties and calicos come from the same gene anomaly, and have the same orange / black / white colours.. Neither are a breed, just a colour combo that appears in some breeds.
Calicos have their colours in splotches or patches, torties have theirs mixed.
i was shocked when one of my cats came up positive for worms.No signs, and I’m obsessive about cleaning the litterbox. But there they were on the slides. That’s when the vet told me since he was a kitten rescue he more than likely got it from his mama’s milk, which is the way roundworms are transmitted to kittens. I had to worm the whole herd, and since then I’m paranoid.
Nothing wrong with being lucky. My latest was a stray without fleas, and I didn’t look a gift horse...ummm, cat...in the mouth.
Worms are generally detected with a fecal test, although in one case I saw many years ago a tiny little kitten barfed up a big honking worm. (Pretty conclusive, IMO.)
http://www.freerepublic.com/~danceswithcats/
No matter what you call her, she's a beauty! Have admired her, DWC, since I first looked at your page. Is she hiding from those little monsters in the lower pic!? ;>)
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