Editor’s note: During the time known as kitten season, when countless litters of kittens are born of unaltered mama and papa cats getting together for a good time, rescuers and fosters run themselves as ragged as a clawed couch trying to save as many little lives as possible and find them loving forever homes. Dr. Kennedy is using her time to scratch the surface herself with a diary of three time periods of her rescue of three little kittens. Day 1 was posted last week; on Day 2, you’ll meet the little guys themselves and get a genetics lesson at the same time.

From left: Levi, Lilo and Loki. Photo courtesy of Long Beach Animal Hospital (LBAH).

Levi: He’s a solid gray, known as “blue” in the world of kitty genetics. His eyes are a dark shade of blue that will turn color when he’s 8 to 12 weeks old, either to green or golden. He appears to be a shorthair kitty.

Levi’s blue shade is a recessive coat color, a dilution of black called a Maltese dilution. This is a result of the dense-pigment gene, which controls the insertion of a protein-depositing pigment into growing hair. These blue cats are often called Russian Blues, but this refers to a purebred, or pedigreed, cat, which we know Levi is not. Instead of a Russian Blue, we can call him a Maltese dilution, which makes him even more beautiful and special. 

Loki: He appears at first glance to be a blue-eyed white kitty, and if he were, he would have a high risk of deafness. This is because neurological development is linked to migration of pigment cells in the developing brain, and without those pigment cells, the hearing function may not develop.

But Loki isn’t a white kitty! He hears just fine–you should see him come running when the dinner bell rings! The secret is in his tail: you can see very faint reddish striping coloration, which is darkening as he grows. Loki is a flame-point colorpoint, a domestic shorthair with Siamese coloration.

We wouldn’t call him a Siamese since that refers to a pedigreed cat. The colorpoint characteristic comes from a temperature-sensitive mutation in pigmentation pathways that suppresses color production except in the extremities where the skin is slightly cooler. As he grows, Loki’s “points”—his, face, ears, legs and tail—will continue to darken into a reddish color, making him a flame point. His eyes will remain blue. He will probably be a shorthair kitty.

Lilo: He’s a striped orange kitty, called “red” in feline genetics. In fact, this is probably what Loki would look like if he didn’t have the colorpoint gene—there would be no color suppression of his red-striping attributes, and his whole body would be colorful. Red is the color, and tabby is the striped pattern. Since he has small, narrow stripes that are said to resemble fish bones all over his body, he’s a mackerel tabby. So in cat lingo, Lilo is a red mackerel tabby, but as a longhair kitty, his longer coat will probably obscure the markings. He will simply be a big, beautiful red kitty. Like Levi, his dark-colored eyes will change in a few weeks, probably to golden.