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Unexpected Discovery: Cat’s DNA Unveiled by Kittens’ Appearance

When a woman decided to take in a pregnant cat found living in a Walmart car park, she began to wonder what had happened to her tail. Justine, a feline fosterer, noticed the ginger cat had a “short crooked tail” and initially thought it had gotten injured on the streets. PETA notes that feral cats often have short lifespans due to untreated contagious diseases. Read the full article here.

Quick Facts

• Justine, a feline fosterer, thought the cat’s short crooked tail was due to an injury from being a feral kitten.
• After the cat gave birth, it became evident that her unique tail wasn’t battle-damaged, but rather a genetic trait passed on to her kittens.
• Dr. Anna Foreman, a veterinarian, explained that tail length in cats is an inherited trait and can also be influenced by selective breeding or mutations.

Justine, from Tennessee, told Newsweek, “We thought she had broken her tail while being a feral kitten in the wild as it’s a good three to four inches shorter than a normal cat tail.” However, when the cat, called Meow Meow, gave birth to her litter, it became clear that her unique tail wasn’t battle-damaged. The footage shows a “perfect comparison” with the kittens’ tails, which are a mixture of normal and short.

The internet has been left in awe and the clip had racked up over 604,000 views at the time of writing.

Justine shared, “I was so surprised seeing some of their short tails. We knew instantly that it was a trait from their mom and not an injury! I am excited to see how the tails grow over the next few months.”

Newsweek reached out to Dr. Anna Foreman, a veterinarian, to find out more about the deformity. Foreman explained, “Tail length, much like leg length in chondrodystrophic breeds such as dachshunds and nose length in brachycephalic breeds such as French bulldogs, is an inherited trait from mother/father to their offspring.”

So far, the video shared on April 12, (@queenjustine39) has amassed over 102,000 likes and almost 400 comments.

Newsweek has previously highlighted the intrigue surrounding cat genetics, featuring articles about viral videos that showcase unique feline conditions. These stories include a cat with a particularly rare genetic trait that amazed many, and another that sparked widespread speculation.

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