White is not a color, it is the lack of color. White is caused by three different genes, the domanant white gene which gives cats orange or blue eyes, the albino white gene which gives blue or red eyes, and the spotting gene which causes white spots. This page will deal in the spotting gene.

The spotting gene has three official alleles. The s or non-spotted which is typified by Eve, who has no white hairs. The S or spotted that expresses itself by a black cat with white hairs or a white cat with black hairs. The example is Mandy, an all white cat whose colors are masked by a giant spot. The Sp or parti-colored gene which makes calicos and tuxedos like Patience and Snappy.

The spotting genes are dominant which means that crossing a spotted cat with a non-spotted cat will produce 25 to 50% spotted kittens. And crossing two homozygous cats with the dominant genes will produce all spotted kittens.

We can speculate that if two cats who are homozygous for both genes, SpSp & SS, mated then all kittens would be SpS. And they would probably be all white.

The pattern of white spotting always starts from the bottom up. As you can see with Patience's markings, the forepaws are white to the wrist and the hindpaws are white to the ankle. These are called mittens and spats(or socks, or boots). The white markings on her face, neck, chest, and abdomen are connected by a line of white hair. Patience is a classic tuxedo.

Snappy has much more white than a tuxedo. She looks like the Japanese good luck cat with color on the top of her head and her ears, a "saddle" of color on her back, and a colored tail starting at the base. The saddle and the color at the base of the tail are connected.

Mandy is all white. Since she has almost the same eye color as Patience and Midnight, I believe that she has the spotting gene. The only way to test this is to breed her, but she has been spayed so this is impossible.

Which brings us to eye color, the eye color will reflect the coat colors that are covered by the white gene. Notice that Snappy has yellow gold eyes that reflect her red and black colors. Mandy and Patience have greenish yellow eyes seen most commonly in black cats. Dominant white and albino white cats have orange, blue, or pink eyes.

Nose and pad colors usually match the fur that is around the nose. Mandy and Patience's nose color is light pink because of the white fur that is growing around their noses. Snappy had a light pink nose with a grey patch and a darker pink patch, I think it is because red and black fur was meant to grow around there. If someone knows, e-mail me.

Snappy has light pink pads as does Mandy. Patience has light pink mixed with black. I beleive it is for the same reason as Snappy's nose is multicolored.

That's all that I know about the spotting genes. For a more scientific work, try Feline Genetics by R. Roger Breton and Nancy J. Creek.