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A bit of trivia: If you see a three colored cat, called a calico cat, you can be positive
it is female. The third color is made possible by gene on the chromosome that males lack.
I'm pretty ignorant about genetics. Anyone who knows more is invited to correct me.
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I've been told by cat people (of which I'm not one) that this is only a 99% certainty but..
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Here's a URL about the genetics of calico cats. I didn't see any mention of any way males could be calico. I'm too old and tired to really digest the discussion. http://www.fanciers.com/other-faqs/color-genetics.html
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old hand
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We call them tortoiseshell cats here, and it is possible to have a male one. The ods are vanishingly small apparently, so that it is almost impossible. I was always taught that it could never happen, until I saw an item on TV news here featuring a male tortoiseshell cat. I guess that shows how rare such an animal is, if it was considered newsworthy.
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Charlie is a mean cat and he's a calico. Maybe his problem is an identity crisis.
Now he is a long-haired calico. Don't know whether the long-hair gene makes a difference.
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dr. bill, from your link: (I didn't have to click on anything there..)
Dear Dr. Universe,
Q: Are calico cats female only? If so, why?
A: Calico cats are nearly always female. [EA]
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Dear tsuwm: In another site,it said females were 99%. That's so high, it is easy to understand
why the impression arose that it was 100%. Not many people look closely at that many cats.
"It is dangerous to assert a negative".
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Pooh-Bah
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The reason that calico cats are almost always female is due to the inactivation of the X chromosome in different cells. All females have two copies of the X chromosome, one inherited from each parent. During fetal development, there is a period when the cells are dividing and both X chromosomes are active. However, after a certain point, one of the two X chromosomes gets inactivated. But this happens randomly, so by the time you have a fully developed animal, you have scattered populations with copies derived from one of the two X chromosomes. The coloring in the fur is controlled at least in part by genes on the X chromosome, so you have patches of fur of different color, each the result of its active X chromosome.
The inactivated X chromosome can be seen in a cell under the microscope, and is called a Barr body, after the biologist who first described it.
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old hand
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If I may stray from the subject of gentics, and divert this thread into words, are these cats known by other names elsewhere? It seems unlikely to me that Zild is the only place in the world to call them tortoiseshell. Any takers?
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>It seems unlikely to me that Zild is the only place in the world to call them tortoiseshell.
from W3:
tortoiseshell (cat): a usually female domestic cat having a black, red, and cream or white blotched coat often with a white blaze on the face
calico: 3 : a blotched or spotted animal:
so, according to the prime USn dictionary, tortoiseshell is more specifically a cat than is calico.
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There are so many sites about "tortoise shell cats" that it must be well known
in US. But when I was small, "calico" was more common in New England. I learned
it from a poem by Edgar Guest, "The gingham dog and the calico cat".
I never heard "calico" applied to any animal other than a cat.
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Pooh-Bah
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In the UK we call them tortoiseshell cats. I would venture to say that we do not use the word calico in this adjectival sense, but only use it when referring to the material. But I am ready to be corrected.
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enthusiast
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A propos of not much: One of my favourite childhood poems starts, "The gingham dog and calico cat/Side by side on the table sat". A ferocious battle ensues, and the poem ends, "They ate each other up".
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In a post above I goofed and said poem was by Edgar Guest. It was Eugene Field. Here is URL: http://www.mtcc.com/~mom/calico.html
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old hand
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In reply to:
. I would venture to say that we do not use the word calico in this adjectival sense, but only use it when referring to the material. But I am ready to be corrected.
That's the norm up here, too.
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My dictionary says "calico" can be an adjective, and gives "calico cat" as an example.
calico
n.,
pl. 3coes# or 3cos# 5after CALICUT, where it was first obtained6
1 orig., a cotton cloth from India
2 a) a printed cotton fabric b) [Brit.] a heavy, white cotton cloth
adj.
1 of calico
2 spotted like calico !a calico cat"
Dear sjm: What do you mean "up here" - you're way down there. I still remember vividly having it
explained to me at age four, by mother of the first girl I ever knew, that it did not make any sense
to talk about a top or bottom to the world. Which reminds me, I must now send an e-mail to that
girl, who lives three thousand mies away from me, in Florida. Over sixty years since I last saw her.
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old hand
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In reply to:
Dear sjm: What do you mean "up here" ... I still remember vivdly having it explained to me at age four,... that it did not make any sense to talk about a top or bottom to the world.
Asked and answered, sehr geehrter Herr Doktor. 
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Pooh-Bah
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I believe that Schrödinger's cat would be a male tortoiseshell if you looked and found it to be alive. But I'm in two minds about it.
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