Hi, my name is Blaise!
I am here again this month to tell you more about the Old-Style Siamese colors.In the Kitten Diary last March, some of you may remember that I told you about seal points, blue points, chocolate points, lilac points, cream points, and most especially RED POINTS. You remember red points, right? See my red point nose? I hope so!
Now I am going to tell you about lynx point Old-Style Siamese and tortie point Old-Style Siamese. Seal, blue, chocolate, lilac, red, and cream are common colors that you find on the points of Siamese cats. The points are the face, ears, paws, and tail of Siamese cats. Lynx points and tortie points are not Siamese colors, however. Lynx and tortie are patterns that arrange Siamese colors in unusual ways on the points.
I had to think very hard for a long time about how to explain lynx points and tortie points. You can see me to the left thinking long and hard, can’t you? Ha! Red points are good at that, you know. I’m a red point kitten, with a creamy body, red nose, red tail, and smart, smart Old-Style Siamese brain.
Not that I’m proud or anything.
Anyhow, an Old-Style Siamese is a lynx point if the color on the points is arranged in stripes. The stripes can be any ONE, but not more than one, of the usual Siamese colors. So you can have seal lynx points with black stripes on their points. In the picture to the right, there is a seal lynx point lying behind a seal point. You can see, can’t you, that the seal point has an almost solid black face, but the seal lynx point has a face that is broken up into black stripes. Both the seal lynx point and the seal point have beige-colored bodies.
Besides seal lynx points, you can have chocolate lynx points with chocolate stripes on their points. You can have blue lynx points with blue stripes on their points. Guess what color the stripes are on lilac lynx points? How about red lynx points and cream lynx points? That’s right! Lilac lynx points have lilac stripes, red lynx points have red stripes, and cream lynx points have cream stripes.
This seal lynx point is a kitten. In the photograph, she is about four months old. Her name is Tabitha. All Siamese have blue eyes. Some of you remember that from last time, I bet. You can see that Tabitha, the seal lynx point, has blue eyes.
When lynx point Old-Style Siamese are first born, they are white. All Siamese are born white. The color and pattern on a young Siamese kitten are faint, but as the weeks and months go by, they get more and more obvious. Take a look at this six week old lynx point kitten below. You can see her facial stripes are starting to show up, but they are faint. They will get much more obvious when she is older. Look at the kitten yawn! Must be time for a nap!
Now it is time to talk about tortie point Old-Style Siamese. “Tortie point” is short for “tortoiseshell point.” A tortoise is a type of turtle. The shell of a tortoise has patches of more than one color. Old-Style Siamese cats don’t have shells, but they do have points. A tortie point Old-Style Siamese has patches of more than one color on the points. In fact, a tortie point always has exactly two colors on the points. One of those colors has to be either red or cream. The other color has to be a color such as seal, chocolate, blue, or lilac. Not only that, but the strong color red always has to be with a dark color like seal or chocolate. The pale color cream always has to be with a light color such as blue or lilac.
Using the common Siamese colors, there are exactly four kinds of tortie points possible:
(1) The seal tortie point—which always has patches of red and seal on the points.
(2) The chocolate tortie point—which always has patches of red and chocolate.
(3) The blue-cream tortie point—which always has patches of cream and blue.
(4) The lilac-cream tortie point—which always has patches of cream and lilac.
The photo on the left shows the face of a blue-cream tortie point Old-Style Siamese. Her name is Leigha. If you look closely, you can see that Leigha has a blue face just like a blue point. “Blue” is what we call it in the cat world, but it looks gray. Leigha also has cream-colored spots on her face, for example between her eyes. The cream patches can be placed anywhere on the points of a blue-cream tortie point. Some tortie points have large patches of red or cream on their points, but other tortie points have small patches. Leigha has only small patches of cream on her points.
Here is another photo of Leigha. It is a little blurry because I magnified the size of her face to help you see the cream patches a little better.
Can you see the cream patch above Leigha’s eye?
Can you see the cream patch next to Leigha’s nose?
Blue point Siamese never have cream patches on their points. Only tortie points can have patches of red or cream on their points—red or cream patches sitting on top of the seal, chocolate, blue, or lilac color.
Here is a picture showing all of Leigha. She is a distance away, so you can’t see her cream patches as well in this photo. But you can see what a pretty Old-Style Siamese she is—and you can see Leigha’s blue eyes. You knew she would have blue eyes, right?
There is something else that is interesting about tortie points. Tortie points are always girl cats. They are never boy cats. Both boy Siamese and girl Siamese can be lynx points, but only girl Siamese can be tortie points.
The reason is that a cat needs two X chromosomes (X kro-mo-soams) in order to be able to make patches of more than one color on the points. Girl cats have two X chromosomes. Boy cats have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome.
Well, that’s okay because I will tell you a little secret. Red point Old-Style Siamese, like me, are mostly boy cats. It is easier for a Siamese to have pure red color on the points if the cat has only one X chromosome. It is a little complicated to explain why that is, but it is the truth. That’s fair, isn’t it? Girl Siamese get to be tortie points sometimes and boy Siamese get to be red points sometimes.
Leigha is a tortie point Old-Style Siamese, and I, Mr. Blaise, am a red point Old-Style Siamese. That’s pretty neat!
Not that I’m proud or anything.