February 3rd 2013 12:04 pm
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When Righty and Lefty first came, except for the differences in their eye damage, they looked much alike. They were the same size, same oriental style, and had the same coat type. Righty was of course, much more active and liked rough play with the other cats whereas Lefty was less active and preferred more gentle games. As they started growing up, for awhile Righty would be larger than Lefty. Then Lefty would go through a growth spurt and catch up with Righty. For awhile they again would look so alike that the only easy way to tell who was who when they were both lying down or otherwise being relatively inactive, was to look at their eyes. Then Lefty would pass Righty and for awhile she'd be the larger of the two. This pattern went on throughout their first year.

Now Lefty appears larger than Righty although Lefty's coat is now thicker and softer and stands out away from the body more whereas Righty's coat is thinner, harder, sleeker, and close to the body the way most Siamese/Oriental Shorthair coats are. I don't know whether Lefty really is larger than Righty now or if its all merely an illusion caused by coat difference.

With both Lefty and Righty, in certain lights you can see subtle ghost tabby striping variations in their white coats. Both have amber eyes and normal hearing. It is BLUE eyed white cats who are usually deaf. Years ago I had a rescue longhaired white cat with blue eyes named Odette who was totally deaf. She had a very cottony Persian type coat that was very difficult to care for and I used to be able to vacuum her coat. She couldn't hear the noise of the vacuum and obviously it felt pleasant to be vacuumed and she liked it because when I'd stop vacuuming her, she'd nudge me to start again. Odette's coat still tended to tangle and mat easily in spite of frequent grooming. She was adopted by a woman who had lost her elderly white cat and this adoptive home was the best possible for Odette, her new owner was a professional groomer!