Could this be my cat's mom..?

naayy

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Hi guys!! I found an interesting phenomenon regarding my cats and thought to ask you guys' opinions and also just share. I was checking the shelter that I got all of my cats from. It's the government owned stray shelter of the city, and it does admirable work in my opinion which is why I keep up with it and try to donate when I can.

Anyway, as I was checking it, I saw a new cat there:
IMG_9189.jpg

2 years old, female. She's got a distinctive elongated snout and very long ears.

I noticed she looks VERY similar to my cat... who I adopted 3 months ago from the same shelter. (He is now 6-7 months old!) Now that he's getting bigger, he really reminds me of the cat in the shelter!

Screen Shot 2020-10-19 at 7.30.15 PM.png
Screen Shot 2020-10-19 at 7.30.22 PM.png
Screen Shot 2020-10-19 at 7.30.07 PM.png

He's got a similar face shape, markings, ear shape, and eye color!

And here's another piece to the mystery. When I adopted him, he had some littermates as well that were all in the same cage/enclosure.

IMG_9190.jpg


All blotchy white + black/ tabby, all have that face shape and big ole' ears!! My kitty (his name is Bugsy!) is the one in the middle/right.

So, I thought I would ask. To me, it looks like really possible that the cat in the shelter would be my cat's mom or maybe sister. What do you think? Is it possible to suss out if they're genetically related just from the pics?

And for breed, I did some research and I'm guessing he's some mix of regular cat and oriental shorthair. Would you guys agree with that?

One last thing. They wouldn't recognize each other even if they are family, right? Not even if that cat is his mother? (This makes me really sad if true)

Thank you guys for reading through the thread!! :)
 

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lutece

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Sure, they could be related. That's a big family he might have there! Perhaps the shelter can tell you if they are related?

They might recognize each other, or they might not. In my experience, though, most of the cats I have raised do seem to remember their mother and littermates later on. My cats even seem to recognize their full siblings if they came from a different litter with the same parents... they prefer to cuddle up with other cats that are full siblings. I might be projecting here (since I also have a sister that I care about), but they seem to know "it's my sister!"

As far as Oriental Shorthair ancestry, it's possible, although they might also just be a family of cats that happens to look like that :) It could also just as easily be Siamese ancestry or any other related breed, since the head type is the same in all of the slinky breeds. Siamese is probably statistically more likely than OSH (as the OSH is more rare), and anyway the OSH got its breed type from the Siamese in the first place.
 
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