On the basis that this photograph is genuine, which I believe it is, this is a very strange odd-eyed cat. In fact the cat should be odd-eyed but has bicolor eyes instead. I’ll explain why I think that this is strange.
White cats sometimes have one eye which is blue and the other which is usually yellow or gold. This is called “odd-eyed”. The medical term is heterochromatia iridum. It is not that rare. All-white cats and bicolour cats sometimes have odd-eye colour. The gene which causes the cats to be white also affects eye colour. It removes colour from one eye leaving it looking blue because of the refraction of light while the yellow eye is the one with colour in it.
It affects one side of the head because that is the way the gene affects the development of the kitten in the womb. In this photograph it would seem that the gene has affected both sides of the cat’s face leaving the centre of the face unaffected in terms of eye colour.
He or she is an odd-eyed cat without the eyes being odd colors which is a complete contradiction in terms but I think you understand what I mean.
The gene has affected the development of the creation of pigmentation in each eye and removed color from half of each one as opposed to removing the color from one eye and leaving the other eye untouched. It is the first time I have seen this. It mus be extremely rare.
I did not know about why blue eyes are blue – thank you for that, Michael. The rest is just as bizarre. I happen to have other eye questions about a cat I just took in, which I’ll ask in the Siamese section.
Great conclusion, Michael. I agree. Your last two paragraphs summarize this rare occurrence nicely.