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Old January 26th 08, 06:44 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.health+behav
mc
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Default Questions About Black Cats, Genetics and Feral Cats

Hello Noon Cat Nick,

I very, very much enjoyed reading the history you wrote :-)

Very interesting :-) It is a very romantic, so to speak, theory :-)

However, knowing just a wee bit (not much, believe me!) about genetics
myself... it SEEMS to me that wiping out an entire gene pool would be
almost impossible. I mean, first of all there are different genes,
recessive and otherwise that could or would cause the black pigment.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but those colors pop up and then good
breeders breed to keep them going. But the color... It seems to me
that the genes to produce it might always be there, we just haven't
figured them all out yet.

For example, the hunters out here in my area claim to see very dark
dear, almost black deer. They have even seen some white deer. So they
claim. We see a lot of deer here but I have never seen one (aside from
at the zoo) that was any other color than a standard deer color. So it
must be the color genetics are there, but it takes a good breeder to
bring them out.

That is how we get all the colors of cats and dogs and even gerbils,
if you will... because the genetics are already there.

Also, I question the history part of the theory because we really
don't know. No one knows what genetics were stomped out if any.

We don't know if there ever was a truly black cat, or if the "black
cats" in Egypt were really dark, dark brown or even if most of them
had some white on their bellies.

My guess is that if a truly black cat does not exist now, it probably
never did exist and this is how the genes have always present
themselves.

Also, again, I don't know, I am not an expert, but the flea theory...
hmmm... I went into the doctors office because I like to run outside
barefoot... and my legs sometimes get these intensely itchy spots on
them... Actually, one doctor said it could be fleas, another doctor
told me no, it could not be fleas. The fleas need the fur of a host to
live. They do not jump from host to human. They cannot, they are not
equipped to do so. They cannot even live in our beds or clothing.

I truthfully have never heard of the plaugues being blamed on fleas.
Body fluids, yet, fleas, no.

But, I will be the first to admit that I could be wrong and this could
be an interesting theory. It is interesting none-the-less :-)