Mistelle Stevenson has a cat named Dawntreader Texas Calboy. He's a very special Maine Coon cat because he is a male calico. Calico cats are almost always female, and when Calboy was born in 2017, they assumed he was female because of his three colors. At twelve weeks they discovered he is definitely a male.
The rare male calico is often due to Klinefelter’s syndrome, meaning his sex chromosomes would be XXY, and therefore sterile. Stevenson let this "sterile" kitten live with the females in her cattery, but when he was seven months old, some cats turned up pregnant. Was Calboy the father? DNA tests were inconclusive, because Calboy's genome appeared to come from two different cats. The tests were repeated, and they determined that Calboy is a chimera!
Sometime early on in utero, two embryos that would normally develop into two different cats, each with its own set of DNA, fused together and grew into one cat. This does not mean Calboy is a hermaphrodite; he doesn’t have any other extra organs or body parts. It means he’s a kitty cocktail carrying two kinds of DNA. Some of his cells carry one cat’s set, some the other.
That explains how he is a male calico. But it doesn't help this champion cat become more accepted at cat shows. The Cat Fanciers’ Association does not know what to do with Dawntreader Texas Calboy, as he doesn't fit any of the categories for standard cats, but there are no specific rules against his color because there's never been a cat like him. Some judges threw him out of competition while others awarded him prizes. Stevenson was advised to get on a CFA breed council to sort the rules out and allow such a cat to compete, but in order to get on a council, she has to win more championships.
Dawntreader Texas Calboy is a very patient cat and perfect for shows, but due to his genetic anomaly, he is barred from CFA competition. Stevenson has other cats she can show, but is adamant about giving Calboy a chance for a special reason. She wants to prove that an accident of birth doesn't make a cat -or a person- unworthy. Read about Dawntreader Texas Calboy and his cat show struggle at D magazine. -via Strange Company