Kline Felter - Day 625: 5 Minute Freewrite: - Prompt: mangy calico cat

The name is Felter. Kline Felter. That bald patch you see

is a scar from a fight with a massive raccoon who tried to poach my dinner. I have dibs on the Dumpster behind Red Lobster. What was a raccoon doing in town anyway? Had to be rabid, or just stupid, to take his chances in my alley.

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My coat of many colors is not mangy,

thank you very much, just thin in places--a tribute, if you will, to living as long as I have. My colorful coat has everyone assuming I'm female, but I'm a rarity, not a she-cat.

And yes, I'd like to get out of this Dumpster, but the lobster was so buttery and delicious, and my hearing isn't as keen as it was once, so I didn't hear the next trash bag come sailing down and now, here I lie, trapped, in a Dumpster, with an injured leg, and I'm squeezing myself like a bat through a keyhole to work my down, then over, then up. I just heard the beep-beep-beep of the big truck backing up, getting ready to shove the forks under the metal box I'm in and upend it into the canyon of trash.

I'm working on it. I hit bottom. That's as far as I've gotten, and the scrape of the tines beneath me makes my paws tingle. My calico coat is standing up. The Dumpster lurches, sways, and arcs upward. Down go the trash bags. I ride mine like a surfer. It will land on top, and this cat will land on all fours.

One well-timed leap, and I'm soaring over the truck, looking for a place to land. My paws claw the air as I strain toward the nearest soft spot, which would be a human. The man reeks but I land on his back, and the other man laughs, pulls out a phone, and dares to take my picture.

"Would ya look at that," the man with the camera says. "That mangy calico cat must have used up his ninth life, he looks so old."

Mangy? Mangy? I didn't get a chance to groom before encountering the humans, and my thin spots are battle scars, not mites and mange. I growl at the man, but he just laughs even harder.

"I think you insulted him," says the man whose shoulder is my perch.

I head-butt the man's jaw in gratitude.

"You mean her," the other man said. "Calicos are never male."

Oh the indignity! The man's massive paws hoist me up, showing off my masculine features. "Male," he said. "Rare, but real."

"Hey ladies," a third man calls out, "we have work to do. Quit playing with cats."

He sets me down and I try to run, but my gimpy leg has me hopping off like a rabbit. Yet another indignity.

Those massive man-paws close around me again. "Here ya go, Cal." He maneuvers me into the cab of the truck, setting me on old upholstery of many smells. "You stay here, and at the end of the day, you'll be eating salmon from the grill with me."

source: BarbaraJackson, pixabay

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What, and risk letting another rabid raccoon take over my territory?

Did he just call me Cal?

He tickles my ears, and I hear myself purr. I just can't help it.

Salmon tonight. At my age, it might be time to relax into some assisted living, right?

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Day 625: 5 Minute Freewrite: Sunday - Prompt: mangy calico cat

Are There Male Calico Cats? by Dr. Marty Becker DVM

• The XXY combination is a genetic rarity that occasionally shows up in cats (people, too). And if both X chromosomes carry the calico blueprint, you’re looking at one rare cat: a male calico.

• "Klinefelter" males, after the doctor who first described the condition.

• If you have a male calico and think you can make money breeding him, you probably won’t. Calico males are usually sterile.

• Only one out of every 3,000 calico cats is male, according to a study by the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Missouri.

• The gene that governs how the orange color in cats displays is on the X chromosome. Any cat, male or female, can be orange, but in males the color is nearly always expressed in the tabby (striped) pattern, sometimes called a ginger tom.

• Female cats, like female humans, have two X chromosomes, while male cats have an X and a Y chromosome. For a cat to be a calico or tortoiseshell, the animal must have two X chromosomes, which means the kitty is going to be female the vast majority of the time. When the calico pattern exists in a male, it’s because the cat has three sex chromosomes: two X, one Y (male).

Mange in Cats

Demodicosis, or demodectic mange, is an inflammatory skin disease in cats that is caused by various types of Demodex mites not visible to the naked eye. Demodex mites are commonly found on the skin of mammals, and in most cases are not symptomatic of an abnormal condition, but when the immune system is compromised, by stress or illness, or the body is producing excess oil or hormones, the Demodex population may become excessive, leading to skin and hair problems. When the number of mites inhabiting the hair follicles of a cat become excessive, skin lesions, genetic disorders, problems with the immune system, and hair loss (alopecia) may follow.