People love using labels to describe and mark things, events or even each other. It’s easier to stick a tag on something than to understand it. The same thing happens with genes. If a gene creates an unusual look, then it gets labeled as “designer”, which by the way, is still a very elegant way of naming things. This is nothing new in the breeding world, it was always like that. Let's start with a little history lesson and go back to the 1920s. The chocolate and lilac genes.

Every cat is a walking story. But that story doesn’t begin with their first breath, or with the first cry in the nest box. It begins earlier — quietly — in the places we can’t see. In the double helix. In the script written long before we even knew their name. Each kitten carries two copies of every gene. One from the mother, one from the father. Sometimes, those genes agree. And sometimes… they don’t. When that happens, one must speak louder. That’s when we meet two fundame