Day 166 of a Photo a Day: Moony Drive

We drove to Ottawa to begin our Valois mini tour today. We were greeted by a lovely little Moony.

This photo of Moony sparked an interesting and often speculative discussion on cat coat genetics. I was curious as to why cats like Moony had so much asymmetry in their patterns...like, I understood that cats with black in some parts and cats with mostly white fur would pass those genes down, and that the more dominant genes would be more pervasive...but why so much visible asymmetry in patterns when the rest of a cat's face is quite symmetrical? It's interesting stuff, and I know from looking at my own face that I'm not exactly symmetrical (and I haven't even looked at my own brain but I know that thing's asymmetrical), but it definitely makes me think a little bit as to whether it's all random or whether maybe, somewhere along the line, there may have been benefits to weird fur patterns. Not sure!