True Colors

The variety of feline coat colors and patterns may be more than cosmetic. Research in other animals has suggested a relationship between "tamability" and non-agouti coats.

Population geneticist Dr. Neil Todd studied the distribution of feline coat colors and found ever-increasing percentages of non-agouti coats along old trade routes out of Africa and up the rivers of Europe.

In Britain, the end of the routes, he found the highest percentages of non-agouti cats. Todd holds that, along these routes, human selection favored the tamest cats. Long before the registries began, owners may already have been picking their cats by color.