Gaia, The Puff Ball...

Hello once again to my "faithful" readers! So I figured it was time to give you an update on my cat and her baby. Well, they're both doing fine, the momma has a good appetite and she is back to her normal behavior...besides the occasional over-protective mother that pops out every now and then. Anyway, we decided to name the baby Gaia and from the looks of things it seems like she is going to have a VERY light colored coat. You see, Sierra is a unique calico because usually calico's and their patches are solid in color. Sierra has tiger stripes in each one of her patches rather than having solid colors. So that in itself is a unique pattern for a calico to have but as many of you may know, a calico with a light coat and no dark colors is a rare coloring. Therefore she would be considered a dilute calico. "Dilute," as you have already guessed, simply means the color is less intense. It takes a complex and confusing combination of genetic markers to create a dilute calico. A short explanation: A dilute calico must inherit three specific genes; a mosaic gene which allows two basic colors to be expressed instead of only one, the dilute markers (cream and blue meaning a soft-reddish color and a light gray rather than a more intense red and black). They also need to inherit a "white spotting" gene which causes parts of their coat to be white. It is only when all three of these genes are present that a calico will be diluted. Since the basic or dense colors are dominant, most calico cat's have a dense coloring instead of dilute, even if they carry the dilute gene. It takes the expression of the recessive dilute genes to create a dilute calico. Color combinations you tend to see in a dilute calico are: white, blue (gray) and cream; white, lilac (dilute of chocolate but looks lighter than the blue coloring) and cream; or white, fawn (beige, dilute of cinnamon) and cream.

The picture above would be what a dilute calico with the white, blue (maybe lilac) and cream coloring looks like.

Gaia has gotten so big in just 6 days and from the looks of it, I'd say she is going to have a white, fawn and cream coloring. She is extremely light, even lighter than our previous cat Noel who was also a diluted calico (white, blue and cream). It's because she is so light that I believe she will have this color combination.

The image above shows what a white, fawn, and cream calico would look like. I'm pretty sure this is what Gaia's coloring will be except it looks like that Gaia has more cream/white and will have patches of the fawn (the darker shade). Refer to the picture below.

This is Gaia, the puff ball!

 So think about it for a second, dilute calico's are rare... now what about a diluted calico that has an even lighter coloring than what you would see in most dilute calico's (white, blue and cream). I'd say that Sierra has got some nice genes, if the little baby boy had survived he would also be rare as most calico cats are female. It also seemed to my mother and I that the little boy would've had the same unique coloring as his momma Sierra.

Irregardless, I am happy to report that both Sierra and Gaia are doing just fine. They are both happy and healthy kittens (Sierra is only 9 months old). I am so proud of Sierra, she has been doing so well in caring for her little girl and is never away from her for very long. Gaia is a very well behaved little kitten, she hardly ever cries (but she can be loud when she wants to ^.^) even when her momma is away from her. She'll just cuddle up in the bed and go right back to sleep. If her momma is away for too long (which she hardly ever is) then Gaia will start crying. I can't wait to see how Gaia will grow up and what her coloring is going to end up looking like.

Sierra and her 6 day old baby girl!

Hope you all enjoyed reading this post, I will continue to update on how things are going with Sierra and Gaia, there will also be pictures (I assure you!) See You Tomorrow!