It’s a point worth making. Domestic cats with 4 ears have 2 functioning ears. The extra pair, which are smaller than the original functioning ears, are, in fact, a pair of ear flaps (pinnae). They are appendages and no more. There are no ear canals that go from them into the skull to the middle ear and then to the inner ear. And neither do the extra ear flaps harm or hurt cats with 4 ears. They are benign, harmless and painless. It’s as if God just stuck them there to make them look cute 😉 .
I’m talking about domestic cats with 4 ears because there is another one on social media whose name is Midas. She’s a cute grey cat. Her Instagram tag is Midas_x24.
Judging by the internet, domestic cats with four ears are not extremely rare. It sounds odd. A while ago I wrote about another 4-eared cat.
Midas lives in Turkey and as expected she has a very healthy following currently of 33.3k fans. Also, as expected, the extra ear flaps are caused by a genetic mutation. It’s something which just happens because a gene mutates and Midas was born with this congenital ‘defect’ technically but actually it’s made her pretty famous.
The description “4-eared” is incorrect, in truth, because the cat has two ears because, as mentioned, the extra two don’t work. It is said to be caused by a recessive mutation. The term ‘genetic mutation’ is a reference to the failure of nature to work properly and make a good copy of genes when the creature is developing by cell division. The mistake causes a DNA copying defect.
Apparently, Wikipedia refers to a 1957 study of cats with extra ear flaps and they found that there could be anatomical anomalies in these cats such as small eyes and a slightly undershot jaw. They also say that the cats in the study were inactive and lethargic. This does not seem to apply to Midas who looks normal and there is little or no indication on her Instagram page that she suffers from these defects (but see below). Her appearance (other than her ears) is a little bit different to normal. She is small cat too.
AT THE BASE OF THE PAGE THERE ARE SOME MORE PAGES ON GENETIC MUTATIONS.
Midas was adopted by Canis Dosemeci and her partner. Her best friends are two golden retrievers: Suzy and Zeyno. Her mother was a stray cat who gave birth to Midas and six siblings in the garden of a friend of Canis.
“She loves to play with yarns, (we have loads of them because of my business), she steals them and hides them somewhere we could never find.” – Canis.
A veterinarian confirmed that she hears perfectly well and that she is healthy but they are going to have some more checks carried out over the forthcoming months to make sure there are no congenital defects in her body. Canis says that she is very friendly and playful. She sleeps all day and is awake all night. She has fans from all over the world.
Update: The Times newspaper of Nov. 20, 2021 reports that she has a defective jaw. This squares up with the findings of the study referred to by the Wikipedia authors.
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Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.
