Lifestyle

Scrappy the Black Cat Is Slowly Turning White

By Phillip Mlynar

, September 28, 2015

Scrappy is one of the most mysterious and distinctive Monday Miracle cats you’ll see.

This senior kitty was born as an all-black kitten, but slowly and surely his fur has been changing to white, leaving him with a peculiar but completely fetching look.

Check out this photo of the chap to see for yourself.

https://instagram.com/p/7vMU3VtexQ/?taken-by=seniorscrappy

Scrappy’s owner, David, adopted him as a kitten way back in 1997. He recalls that Scrappy seemed to be something of the outsider of his litter.

“The other five kittens were all playing together and were very cute,” he recalls. “Scrappy was sat on his own and, although he was cute, I knew to others he wouldn’t be seen as being as cute as his siblings.”

At that point David decided to step up and take Scrappy home.

https://instagram.com/p/7fgFcate_v/?taken-by=seniorscrappy

Fast forward seven years from his adoption date, and the otherwise perfectly normal Scrappy suddenly began to develop what David calls “white patches” on his fur. They began on his shoulder, then spread to his head.

https://instagram.com/p/6lSSyDNezc/?taken-by=seniorscrappy

“My initial reaction when the white patches appeared to become more frequent was to take him to the vets as I thought he had had a stroke,” recalls David.

https://instagram.com/p/6P6d8QNe5p/?taken-by=seniorscrappy

It turns out that the vet was stumped by Scrappy’s color-shifting condition. The idea that Scrappy was afflicted with vitiligo — a condition that alters skin pigment cells — was mooted. Although as David says now, “The vet still isn’t 100 percent sure what Scrappy may well have without carrying out intrusive tests. The vet thinks it is most likely due to the loss of color pigment in his skin and fur.”

https://instagram.com/p/4WP81Cte_p/?taken-by=seniorscrappy

Thankfully, it seems that Scrappy’s mysterious condition doesn’t seem to cause him any pain. Describing him as a loving and affectionate cat who nevertheless affects a grumpy demeanor at times, David confirms, “His white patches have caused no change to his behavior.”

https://instagram.com/p/5Wl_UOte9t/?taken-by=seniorscrappy

As for the big question you’re wondering, is it possible that Scrappy’s fur will continue to change to the point where this once-black cat becomes totally white all over?

Well, David says that might have been possible had the condition kicked into play earlier in his life, but due to his senior status, “it doesn’t seem likely that Scrappy will turn into an entirely white cat.”

In the meantime, you can bounce over to Scrappy’s Instagram and Facebook pages to keep up to speed with this true marvel of nature.

Read more Monday Miracles:

About Phillip Mlynar: The self-appointed world’s foremost expert on rappers’ cats. When not penning posts on rap music, he can be found building DIY cat towers for his adopted domestic shorthair, Mimosa, and collecting Le Creuset cookware (in red). He has also invented cat sushi, but it’s not quite what you think it is.