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Pretty Kitty!: Chimera Cat Is Its Own Fraternal Twin

August 22, 2012 / animals, awesome, biology, cat, chimera, colors, daaaaaaaaw, eye candy, freaky-deaky, genetics, get that cat some catnip STAT!, i might not be my own twin but i'm still my own best friend, i used to know a girl with two different colored eyes, kitties!, kitty, man why couldn't i have been a chimera and gotten all this attention?, neato, pet, pretty kitty!, want, yes please

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This is Venus, a three year old chimera cat. WTF is a chimera cat? CUTE AS A BUTTON.

Chimera cat is one individual organism, but genetically its own fraternal twin. A chimera is typically formed from four parent cells (either two fertilized eggs, or two early embryos that have fused together). When the organism forms, the cells that had already begun to develop in the separate embryos keep their original phenotypes and appearances. This means that the resulting animal is a mixture of tissues and can look like this gorgeous (but bizarre) kitty.

Man, now I want a pet chimera cat. Or -- OR -- a chupacabra. How much do you think I could charge people to see that? Also, how convincing do you think a dog with horns glued to the top of its head would be? I only ask because Chloe is already pretty scrappy looking.

Hit the jump for several more shots and a video of the pretty kitty.

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via If***inglovescience on Facebook

Thanks to GLiTCH, who dated a chimera girl once. Mmmm, love that exotic look...I think.

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There are Comments
  • Pinky's Mom

    Venus: What a beautiful cat. She reminds me of the gorgeous little calico I had for 12 years. She was distinctive and fascinating to look at, with a perverse, mercurial personality to fit that little color-split face. Whoever has Venus, I hope they treasure this little slice of weirdly gorgeous.

  • Oh look, another cat on the Internet. Anyway...

  • Meesah

    My boyfriends moms cat is like this too. Only she is half grey and half orange. Even inside her mouth is split down the middle half black and half pink

  • Animals12

    i wonder how many cats look like her now, and people don't know what they are? I will be on the lookout....lol

  • Really? Not a single 60's STAR TREK reference? "Lohki is white on the right side and black on the other..." ;)

  • Francesc

    Sorry, but
    this cat is not a Chimera. Chimera is an organism that have some cells with one
    genomic DNA and some with other. The cat has the color in X chromosome. And
    in all mammals only one X chromosome is expressed. The other is not and forms
    the "barr's Body" (search in Wikipedia). This cat is a female
    cat with one x chromosome (Black) or the other (Garfield color) but with the same genomic DNA
    in all cells.Then is not chimeric.

  • Kristy

    Awesome cat! Where did you get her?

  • If it was my cat, I'd name him "Phantom".

  • kittylu

    A lady was found to be a chimera when she somehow failed a maternity test for her biological daughter. They later found dna proving her maternity in a second test.

  • jakee308

    Be vigilant. There's some who would try to steal your kitty.

    Very nice though gold and green eyes and the perfect division of color on the face and a on the paws. Does she have split personality? Well all cats have that so nevermind.

    You are lucky. give thanks for this blessing.

  • Guest

    my dog has that same face thing going on

  • She's pretty....but I don't believe she is chimeric at all...odd eyes happen, and split faces happen....they don't happen together often, but they certainly can, and its much more likely that this is the case than chimerism.

    There' a pic here of an odd eyed tortie without the split face...
    http://www.messybeast.com/eye-...

  • I really doubt this girl is chimeric....the split face is actually really common in tortoiseshell cats, the odd eyes less so, but still WAAAAY more likely than chimerism. IF she were male, I would buy the chimerism claim.....but she's not...and these markings are really not THAT unusual

  • If it really is a chimera cat I wonder if it has a split personality or anything.

  • Guest

    If it really is a chimera cat I wonder if it has like a split personality of anything.

  • Venus? Should've named it Gemini.

  • Hair dye and contact lens. The Horner cat.

  • Has this cat had genetic testing? If "Venus" is a female cat then these marking are not unusual (although the odd eye pattern is more rare) and there is no reason to suspect she is a chimera. If the cat is a male, then yes, there is reason to suspect multi egg heritage, and he'd mostly likely be sterile to boot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...

  • Vin Moretti

    I shall call him....
    Janus.

  • Ehrin

    Homey, you just painted your

    Heterochromia cat's face!

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