FELINES FANTASTICAL: How many of our superstitions and lucky charms and rumors and tales spring from the world of cats? The answer: A lot. Our purring, bewhiskered, cuddlesome, frolicsome friends have provided people, throughout time, with a bevy of stories, some quite fantastical. (Really, a black cat crossing your path is a wonderful thing, because you've been lucky enough to see a cat out on your walk, so yay you.) But some of these yarns about our string-of-yarn-loving companions actually are true and amazing, such as this one: Male calicos are rare, quite rare, as in, if you ever meet one, it might be the only one you ever meet. VetStreet estimates that "(o)nly one out of every 3,000 calico cats is male," and, yep, it has to do with genetics, chromosomes, and how everything dovetails -- cattails? -- together. The Humane Society Silicon Valley reports that a male calico has made his way to their headquarters, and he's up for adoption, too.
MEET SHERMAN: Little Sherman, who is about four months old, will be receiving an adoring public and possible potential new parents at the Neighborhood Adoption Center in Sunnyvale on Saturday, Jan. 31. The young feline arrived at the Silicon Valley shelter from a sister shelter. HSSV "partners with local shelters in the area to help alleviate the strain on resources when shelters are too full, or if an animal needs a little extra help to get adopted," says Leanne Reis, a representative of the Humane Society Silicon Valley. Sherman is described as "personable and friendly" and a lover of people. And if you do adopt this male calico, you'll need to bone up on your rare little boy, and how he fits into the larger feline story.
HUMANE SOCIETY SILICON VALLEY, by the by, is the place that sheltered "Eddie the Terrible," a Chihuahua with quite the colorful story. The happy news? Eddie found a loving home just days after his sassy story went wide in the middle of December.
