Maltese cat

The Russian Blue is one of a number of cat breeds whose fur is always Maltese all over.

Maltese cat is a name that is often given to any cat whose fur is either completely, or primarily, gray or blue and is of indeterminate breed.^[1] Many cats with such colouration are supposedly present on the island of Malta, which may have given rise to the use of the adjective in this context.

There are several cat breeds that always produce blue or gray fur, of whom the adjective may be used. These are the Russian Blue, the Chartreux and the Korat. There are several other breeds that often produce blues such as the British Shorthair. The blue variant of this breed was so common that many thought it was its own breed called the British Blue.

Regardless of breed, any cat with solid gray coloration has two pairs of double-recessive genes for the non-agouti and color-dilution traits, and so an exclusive mating between two solid gray cats should always produce solid gray kittens.

Other meanings

In literature, "The Maltese Cat" is the title of a short story by Rudyard Kipling.^[2] The story is about a polo match set in British colonial India, told from the point of view of one of the ponies, a gray named the Maltese Cat.^[3]

Notes

This felid-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e