Cats Are Not Peas
by
Laura Gould
adult nonfiction
The author has a male calico. People tell her that male calicoes/tricolors are rare or don't even exist. This starts her on her way to researching why this is so. I could have told her that male calicoes exist because my grandparents had one. His name was Poi.
The author takes genetics, which can be intimidating, and explains them so the average layperson can understand. She adds in a number of anecdotes, legends, and more about the history of cats and the history of genetics. She also tells some good cat stories based on her own experiences.
Gregor Mendel is seen as the father of modern genetics, but his experiments with peas do not explain everything that geneticists of today understand. Find out what we currently understand about color dominance, sex linked traits, and sexual mutations such as chimeras.
I recommend this for people who have an interest in cats and/or genetics, but do not want to be bogged down with too much heavy science. Once upon a time I was a biology major, but I have forgotten most of it. This book was just right because it did take a scientific approach, but it was not written for scientists. If you have a grandchild, a nephew, a brother, a friend, etc. who is a biology major and you want to have something to discuss with him or her, read this book and you can carry on an interesting conversation.
Notes for librarians:
Unfortunately, two of the true tales she has to tell are about how university library policies are not friendly to people who are not faculty or staff. It can be challenging to get a hold of scholarly journals and old books if you are a writer researching genetics and the history of cats. She has a bad experience with librarians interpreting library policy toward alumni different ways. One librarian denies her service. Another hides the books from her! (I am so ashamed of these people who are giving a bad name to our profession). One won't let her check out a book that she has checked out before. (Pages 39-40 and 155 tell of these unfortunate encounters).
On page 86 she discusses that Charles Darwin's works are considered to be "popular literature for the masses". She laughs at this idea and states that Darwin is no Louis Lamour!
