Here is a picture of a rare chimera cat whose name is Quimera and who lives in Argentina. I have some more articles on this cat coat and one on how I think the split face is created (see below). I have written about Quimera before but this is an improved photograph. The odd-eye color is part of the same genetic process that produces the split face as you’d expect.
The Wikipedia definition of ‘chimera’ in the context of genetics is ‘a single organism composed of cells with more than one distinct genotype’. In terms of what sort of cat coat this cat has, she is a tortoisehsell-and-white, which they call ‘calico’ cats in the US. They are almost always female but the rare males are still feminine. And it is probably true that no tortoiseshell has fathered a litter of kittens i.e. they are sterile.
Quimera has a fabulous plumed tail too:
The rarity of the male tortie saved them from persecution in the past. I wonder what they made of chimera cats in times past when people were more superstitious. It could have gone either way: they could have seen the devil’s work or a cat that could cure all ills.
