This is the first in a series of Q&As with The Author himself…

Are you now or have you ever been owned by a cat? If not, how the heck do you know so much about them, particularly the Abyssinian and Burmese varieties?

Back in the early 60s I had a cat. Seymour Cat, named for my first wife’s obstetrician, Seymour Katz. Seymour was a girl cat, it turned out. I can’t remember what became of her. Then some years later I had two seal-point Siamese, Tanner and Tuppence, and Tuppence had Bonnie and Clyde. Tanner got run over by a car, and Clyde died, so that left us with two cats with names that no longer made any sense. Tanner tended to mate with both Tuppence, his mate, and Bonnie, his daughter, which was difficult to explain to the children. Then there were innumerable outdoor cats—we lived in the country then—and most of them were forgettable, but there was one I named Vectra because all he wanted in the world was to come into the house, which made him a sort of indoor-outdoor cat, and Vectra was a brand of what they insisted was indoor-outdoor carpeting. Never mind. It seemed to make sense then, but so did lots of things, including living in the country and having cats.

I know a little about cat genetics. I know that all calico cats are female, which lots of people know, and I know that all white cats with blue eyes are deaf. Not as many people know that. I wonder if it’s truly true…