A routine spay surgery at the Humane Society of Central Oregon (HSCO) resulted in an extraordinary discovery when the veterinary staff realized that a tortoiseshell kitten named Cindi was actually male, a very rare occurrence in the feline world. Tortoiseshell cats have a distinctive coat pattern featuring a mix of black, orange and sometimes white. This pattern is linked to the X chromosome.
Female cats, having two X chromosomes, can display both black and orange colors if they inherit different color genes on each X. Males, with one X and one Y chromosome, are usually either black or orange but not both. Therefore, male tortoiseshell cats are extremely rare, often a result of genetic anomalies like Klinefelter syndrome, where a cat has two X chromosomes and one Y chromosome.
The rare kitten's journey began when he arrived at HSCO on April 30. The staff assumed Cindi, who now goes by Cinder, was female based on her external features. She and her litter mate were placed into a foster home, where they initially struggled with eating but soon thrived.
Cindi was brought back to the shelter for a routine spay surgery to prepare her for adoption. During the surgery, Crystal Bloodworth, the HSCO's lead veterinarian, discovered that Cindi did not have a uterus or ovaries. Instead, she found two testicles.
Because of these gonads, the kitten was reclassified as male and renamed Cinder. "Determining to call the kitten a male is tough, but with the binary nature of animals and people's.