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Old May 8th 05, 06:51 PM
Fritti Fritti is offline
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First recorded activity by CatBanter: Apr 2005
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 46
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Quote:
Originally Posted by J
"J" t wrote

I went with my g/f to see a whole bunch of kittens (from three mom's, all
same residence!) and decided on this little feller:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/derien/12890617/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/derien/12890622/

(He's 4 weeks old) I totally fell in love with him because of all the
kittens in the room, he was leaping and bounding like a crazy thing and
didn't cower when I reached to pick him up like most of the rest did and
he seemed friendly and confident.

My g/f chose the only tabby of the bunch which was a week or more younger
and the runt of the litter but a real cutie too. We pick them up on 3rd
June.

The thing is this: I live in the UK and I'd like my cats to be able to
roam in the day and play outside together while we're at work if they
want, but I have been reading that cat's with predominantly white fur and
blue eyes have a good chance they are deaf. So, if the likkle white and
black one was deaf I'd have to keep them both indoors. I'd love him still
as much, but they'd have to be indoor cats then.

Basically, I would like someone to confirm that because he has a black
head/face, a bit on his back hip and a black tail, that his hearing should
be fine and I can stop worrying as it's mostly pure white cats that suffer
from deafness???


BTW, I thought the name "Cookie" would be great for him!?

What do you think?

:O)
I doubt the little kit will be deaf, even though he may have blue eyes. It is true that pure white cats with blue eyes tend to be deaf; this is something genetical, the deafness being linked to the combination of dominant white fur and blue eyes. But it's not a rule all blue-eyed white cats are deaf; these cats just stand a higher chance of being it. It also only counts for the "albino" blue eyes; a Foreign White cat for instance also is a pure white cat with ble eyes, but it's also a Siamese but only with pure white fur. And Siamese blue eyes don't have a thing to do with deafness. Besides, a kitten as young as that mostly does tend to have blue eyes, almost all kittens that age do. The eyes usually color later in life, after a few months. On my Bisou for example, I was stunned to find him having grey eyes when I got him at the age of eight weeks old. But he has the most stunning green eyes I've ever seen on a cat now. If you want to be sure about this kitten, take a sound-test on him. Snap your fingers behind him, without him seeing you, and see if he turns around to see what that was. As for reassurance: I have a 13-year-old cat named Tibsy, and she's white with two black patches over her ears, a few black patches on her back and a black tail, and she's not deaf. She also had blue eyes when she was just a few weeks old, but they turned to yellow after a couple of months.
And "Cookie" for a name? Doesn't sound bad at all, but for a boy kitten? Quite frankly, I think it sounds a bit girlish. But that's just my opinion, of course. I personally like to give my kitties capricious, baroque names. For instance, I used to have this really big black cat with white feet and a white triangle on his throat, and his full name was Duffield Jones MacDuff (his call sounded like McEow, so hence the Scottish name). If you would like to find a funny and/or unusual name for any cat, try looking though books on completely different subjects, like interior decorating, astronomics or car-models. That always gave me great ideas.
Anyway, I wish you a long and happy time with your new kitten, no matter what name you may decide to give him!