Читать книгу Cats For Dummies - Gina Spadafori - Страница 36

Most people couldn’t care less if a cat has a pedigree or a fancy breed name — they just like cats and are content to adopt one that strikes their fancy or wanders into their lives. Calling a nonpedigreed cat a “mixed breed” isn’t exactly right, however, because most breeders are so careful with their pedigreed cats that the possibility of an unplanned breeding is almost nil. The everyday cat, shown in Figure 2-7, really is completely random-bred, produced as a matter of complete serendipity with no rhyme or reason at all — at least not where humans are concerned! We like the British name for these cats — moggies.

© John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

FIGURE 2-7: The tuxedo, calico, and the most common pattern — the tabby — reflect the variety found among random-bred cats.

Still, randomness being what it is — random — you can find some nonpedigreed cats that look very close to their show-going cousins. A big, brown, longhaired tabby that has more than a passing resemblance to a Maine Coon, for example. In the very real terms of love and affection, such cats are neither more nor less valuable than their pedigreed counterparts.

Even without human meddling, cats display a remarkable range of traits and appearances. Some of the more popular are the tuxedo-marked cats. Calicoes, orange tabbies, and tortoiseshells are fabled, too, and more than one cat lover has a soft spot in her heart for a ginger tabby.

The point here is that all cats have the potential to be a special pet to someone, no matter where they come from, no matter what they look like. And cats are really more alike than they are different in terms of health, general size, and behavior.

The differences count only in relation to what you want in a pet. You need to know your own heart before you choose to let any cat into it.