Calico Norwegian Forest cat

This is a pretty Norwegian Forest cat and she is a tortoiseshell-and-white which in America is called a "calico" cat. They are almost always female; in exactly the same percentage as tortoiseshell cats. The coat is a mixture of black, red and cream and white coloration. It is a black coat plus orange tabby. The lighter, orange tabby areas, being two-toned give the impression that the cat has a three-coloured coat. Male tortoiseshell cats are sterile. They are incredibly rare and about one in every 3,000 which on the face of it makes them valuable but their sterility undermines this value. I reckon that they could be worth about £2000 for their rarity value alone but Sarah Hartwell, a colleague of mine, disagrees with me.

Calico Norwegian Forest cat. Photo: in public domain

Theoretically, make tortoiseshell cats should not exist but they due because occasionally there is a minor genetic error. The trouble is that his masculinity is poor. As mentioned they are sterile and their behaviour is described as "extremely odd". They behave like a masculinized female rather than a real male cat. One male tortoiseshell cat was recorded as being disinterested in the usual social fighting between the genders because he was neither fully male nor fully female. He didn't feel the need to compete in single-sex pecking order arguments.

Dr Desmond Morris makes an excellent point in that although not all tortoiseshell and calico cats are female, they are always feminine and this includes the very rare male tortoiseshells.