Pictures of the kittens!

Well, I finally got some pictures of the kittens. They're still so afraid that they run away any time they even see me, so I had to use a bit of subterfuge. I cleaned the big window by the front door and I cleaned the window of the safe room, leaving the heavy rolling metal blinds open.

So, here are some of the results. In this first pictures, you can see the black one with the white nose and paws, whom we have dubbed "Pascal". He's actually pawing right at the window of the safe room. In the background, you can also see one of the calico kittens. Right after I took this picture, Pascal ran away because he was afraid of me, even through the window!
I took this picture right after the previous one. As you can see, I had put some food out for them. This is the calico with the least orange on her. We have named her "Goldie":

Here's a picture of the other 2 calicos, also taken through the safe-room window:

The next morning, all 5 kittens joined the big cats on the porch by the front door for breakfast. Here's a great shot of all of them, taken through the living room window, together with Tz'hovi, who is probably their father (at least the father of the calico ones). Going clockwise from him, we have Pascal, Goldie, Priscilla, Mr. B, and Peachy:

For a while, their mother, Beatrix, was eating with them also, but she had left by the time I took the previous picture. When I first put the food out, the 3 adult cats, Tz'hovi, Beatrix, and MiniMe (Beatrix's son and sole survivor from her litter last year), all were eating. But when the kittens came, MiniMe ran away the other direction. The following picture, taken when he returned, may explain what, or, more precisely, whom he was afraid of: Mr. B (Back off! I'm a FIERCE cat!)! Little brother wins again!

I did a little boning up on cat genetics (well, I actually I knew nearly NOTHING about it before!), and that's why I'm pretty sure of the genders of the kittens, as well as their paternity. The one thing that I HAD heard before was that calicos are all female. I learned that tortoise-shell cats are also all female. I also found out that the gene that creates red-orange-yellow cats (like Katom and Tz'hovi) is on the X chromosome and is therefore gender-linked. A male, of course, has one X and one Y chromosome, whereas females has 2 X's. Since the male's single X must come from his mother (the Y, from his father, is what makes him male), if that X happens to have the gene for red, he will be red or orange or yellow (other genes control the shade). Females, on the other hand, are only red-orange-yellow if BOTH their X's have the gene. However, if only ONE of the female's X's has the gene, she will be tortoise-shell or calico (again, controlled by other genes). Since Beatrix is NOT calico or tortoise-shell, the father of the calicos MUST be a red-orange-yellow cat, therefore almost certainly Tz'hovi. He is probably also the father of the other 2 kittens (Pascal and Mr. B), and, if this is the the case, they will be male, since they are NOT calico or tortoise-shell. Of course, they MIGHT have a different father, in which case they could also be female.