GRC Ohmy Radio Star of Leotie, (pictured) the product of two CFA and TICA registered red, or sorrel, Abys, has a distinctly darker tail tip and ticking than any of the sorrels I have ever remembered owning. There is not a black hair on this cat's body. Her paw pads are a dirty pink. Compared to a cinnamon sorrel only, she looks almost ruddy, and when compared to a ruddy, looks sorrel. Examination of her parents revealed that her dam was of the bright color that I was the most familiar with, and that the sire, CH Ohmy Red Radio Flyer, had the darker tail tip that resembled his offspring. I had handled both of these cats during training for my judge's licence, one each on two different occasions. I did not notice the darker ticking on the sire at the time I saw him.
I took Radio Star to a TICA show in Delaware, Ohio in March of 2001, along with a sorrel, RW QGC Leotie's Rubaiyat, and a near handful of ruddies. I specifically asked the opinion of two very experienced judges, Don Caruthers and Connie Webb, who both agreed that Star was not ruddy, or sorrel, but probably chocolate. One of the judges I asked about the color, had judged both cats as sorrels the day before. I went up to the judge with both my sorrels and asked if they were the same color. The judge's first response, pointing to Radio Star, was "That's a ruddy." Of course, then when compared to a ruddy, it was apparent that she was not. Candice Massey was there with some of her chocolate Havanas, and was willing to do some direct tail tip to tail tip and paw pad to paw pad comparisons. The colors matched exactly.
I took Radio Star and 4 Abys of the standard colors to a TICA judging school in Waukesha, WI in April of 2001, taught by Connie Webb with 9 participants. Only Connie and I knew there was a chocolate in the group. The sorrel color was represented by RW SGC Leotie's Mox Ruby, OD. Fawn was represented by RW QGC Leotie's Iskandar, twice TICA's International Best Fawn Abyssinian, and 11 years old at the time. Two ruddies were also there, RW SGC Leotie's Tiamat, and CH Leotie's Moon Shadow. There were several judges of varying experience present at this school besides myself and Connie Webb. We did an exercise in determining the color of each of the Abys present, with the premise that none of us had ever seen an Aby before. A color chart, developed from the TICA color descriptions, and the Aby standards from TICA, CFA, the British Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF), and the Australian (RASCC), were used as a reference. These last two were included since both have chocolate and lilac described in their Abyssinian standards. Every participant, including the non-judges, identified Radio Star as being chocolate, and identified the other colors correctly as well.
A breeding to Radio Star by my sorrel male, TGC Leotie's Sultan, resulted in what appeared to be 2 chocolate females and a sorrel male. Unfortunately, this was an emergency c-sect, no kittens survived, and Star was diagnosed and treated for a uterine infection. A repeat breeding resulted in a miscarriage due to a re-occurrence of the infection. As of this date, I have not been able to get another litter from her. She was later spayed and placed in a pet home.
In the meantime, Pat Harbert of Ohmy Abyssinians and Bengals did a breeding with the sire of CH Ohmy Red Radio Flyer, Winwalker Gaby Haze of Ohmy, a ruddy, to the sorrel girl, CH Leotie's Dragonsong of Ohmy, that she had gotten from me, and produced a litter. In August of 2001, I got to see one of the cats from this litter. CH Ohmy Ali Katzam of Gateway had the same darker ticking, tail tip, and brown lips seen on Radio Star. This made the grandsire of Radio Star, Winwalker Gaby Haze of Ohmy, the carrier of the chocolate gene in this line. Being a ruddy made it simple to determine which of his parents supplied the chocolate gene using the usual genetic model of three distinct alleles. His dam is a blue, a dilute ruddy, so she contributed the dominant gene for ruddy. His sire is a sorrel, Highsteppers Big Red of Kimoci. The recessive chocolate gene carried by Gaby Haze had to come from this cat, and because of that, it can be concluded that Big Red was actually chocolate, not sorrel. From this it can also be concluded that the fawns, RW SGC Ohmy Dragonfly and QGA Ohmy Nikko, from the same litter as Ali Katzam, are actually lilac.
In May of 2002, these three members of this litter were present at a show in Oklahoma City. After judging on Sunday, we were able to get them all together, along with a chocolate kitten from a repeat of the same breeding. Also present was CH Ohmy Nile Dragon of Leotie, a lilac male out of CH Leotie's Dragonsong of Ohmy, sired by CH Ohmy Red Radio Flyer. Additionally for comparison we had CH Leotie's Renaissance, a sorrel female, and Leotie's Platinum of Kittyharbor/Ohmy, a fawn silver female. Pat Harbert, Patricia Loynd of Gateway Bengals, owner of Ali Katzam, and myself were there to present them to Sue Becknell-Bower (Von Becknell cattery) and Maureen Nottingham (Nile cattery (US)), both TICA Allbreed judges and Aby breeders. We did tail tip and paw pad comparisons with the cats. The difference between the tail tips of Ali Katzam and Renaissance was very noticeable. Both Sue and Maureen agreed that Ali was chocolate, not ruddy or sorrel. When looking at the tail tips of the 3 lilacs, Dragonfly's and Nile's were the exact same color, while Nikko's was a rosier shade. Following the established model for inheritance, if his litter mates are chocolate and lilac, then he also has to be lilac. The difference can be attributed to the effects of the rufus polygene, or the theoretical caramel modifier gene. Nikko's tail tip and Platinum's were very close in color, showing that the ranges of phenotypic expression of lilac and fawn can overlap. Pictured is Ohmy Tishamingo, lilac male.
