Warrior Cat Clichès

Part 4 - I look fabulous

Yes, now it is time to go over appearances.  Some cats that I have seen simply could not exist in real life.  For example, Stargleam was a solid purple cat with molting rainbow eyes and a perfect white star shaped mark on her forehead.  She has also been described several times as 'kawaii'.  Obviously, this is an overtly unrealistic cat, but there are more subtle things that are not actually natural.  

Firstly, here is a list of possible pelt colours and patterns.  Note that warrior cats are mixed breeds, so you aren't going to find any tipped cats or any particular breeds like Russian Blues or Ragdolls.  

Patterns:

- Solid.  Means that they only have one colour.

- Tabby.  Means they have striped and stuff.  You guys know what a tabby is.  

- Bicolour.  Usually seen in cats like Ravenpaw where they have one main colour and then a white belly and/or muzzle/paws.

- Tortoiseshell, or Tortie.  They're black with lots of ginger hairs.  It is very important to note that torties are most commonly females, and that males are very rare and often sterile.  I would not recommend having a male tortie in your story.

- Calico.  A mix of white, black and orange patches that overlap.  Calicos are mostly white, though, and when there is more colour than white is becomes a Tricolour pelt.  

Colours:

 - White.  This is the only colour that can always be completely solid without any faint markings underneath.  

- Black.  This colour is often not pure black, and is either a very dark brown or a dark rusty colour.  Sometimes it can have very faint tabby markings underneath if you look at it in the right light.

- Orange/Ginger/Red.  All the same colour, really, but different shades.  Note that solid orange cats are usually male, although you can have orange females.

 - Blue.  Not much to say, but I hope that you all know that blue isn't actually straight blue and is actually gray with a blue tinge.  

- Cream.  Actually a very dilute orange.  

- Brown.  Solid brown cats are not very common, male or female.  Brown tabbies are more common.  Brown pelts can also have a slight pink tone, and we can then call it lilac or lavender.  Although this is genetically possible, for StarClan's sake don't use it unless you want hoards of flamers chasing after your cat.

- Cinnamon/Russet/Fawn.  The first two are a mix of ginger and brown, and the latter is a more dilute version.  

Now, I'll show you possible eye colours.  

- Blue

- Green

- Yellow

- Orange

- Amber

- Hazel

- Brown

These colours are just the basic ones, but you can also have any in-between colour that you can think of.  For example, aqua, greeny-yellow and such are possible.  

****VERY IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT EYE COLOURS:  NEVER EVER EVER AGAIN DO I WANT TO SEE A KIT WHO HAS JUST BEEN BORN OPEN THEIR GREEN EYES.  KITS ARE ALWAYS BORN WITH BLUE EYES AND START GETTING THEIR ACTUAL COLOUR AT ABOUT ONE AND A HALF MOONS OLD.  

****ALSO IMPORTANT.  Cats with two different coloured eyes always always have one eye blue.  White cats and cats with a lot of white on their faces are more likely to have Heterochromia.  It is still a rare thing, but I have seen a few OCs with this disease.  This thing is also not hereditary.  

Health things to do with different colours and mutations and stuff

- Ice blue eyes are actually a mutation

- Cats with white ears are at risk of skin cancer and nasty stuff if they stay out in the sunlight for too long

- No, not all white-furred blue-eyed cats are deaf.  The pelt colour white is associated with deafness, and blue eyed cats have a higher chance of being deaf, but it isn't a certain thing.  If you want a white cat with blue eyes who isn't deaf, go for it.  If you want a deaf cat, you can go for a white-furred blue eyed one, but you don't have to.  Not all deaf cats have white fur and blue eyes.  As a side note, with Heterochromia, the ear on the side with the blue eye can be deaf.  As mentioned before, most cats with two different eye colours are white, so this would also contribute to the one-sided deafness.  

In case that confused you, here are some stats about white fur and blue eyes.

- 5% of the cat population are pure white cats.

- 15 - 40% of these cats have one or two blue eyes.

- If they have two blue eyes: 60 - 80% are deaf.

- If they have one blue eye: 30 - 40% are deaf.

- Of the other percent of white cats who don't have blue eyes, 10 - 20% are deaf.  

What does this mean?  If you have a white cat with two blue eyes, it will most likely be deaf.  Most likely does not mean will.  

That was confusing.  Let us continue.

- Polydactal paws are highly hereditary. If Blackstar had a kitten, they would almost definitely be the same.  

- Now that I am doing some research, I realise that there are way too many mutations and things to list here.  I am going to move on.

I'm too tired now to put it all here, but here's the drift:  If you come up with an appearance for your main kitty, then ask google if that cat could actually exist.  Stick to the basics (this) and you should be fine. 

Well, I think that is all of the main points of a cat's appearance.  No, I am not going to go on about folded ears or any of that mousedung.  

You know what?  

Let's fix Sparkleshine: Appearance edition

Yep.  Sparkleshine is a very sparkly solid silver she-cat with pretty white swirls in her fur and dainty paws and soft, plush fur with ice blue eyes.  

I know, that's not what I said last time.  She's being ramped up so that you can gag at that sentence.  Hopefully.  If you didn't gag, I am very worried.  

Firstly, let's make her a bit simpler.  No sparkles, no dainty this and delicate that.  She is now a long-furred silver she-cat with white swirls and ice blue eyes.  Not as bad, but now we'll make her a bit more normal.  No swirls.  Maybe just normal blue eyes.  Silver is overrated.  Let's go gray.  Sparkleshine is now a long-furred, grey she-cat with blue eyes.  

Boring?  Maybe.  Still a clichè appearance, but a lot more normal.  Here's a tip: No-one is going to care if your cats has white swirls in your fur unless it has white swirls in its fur.  And by care I mean 'Sparkleshine is a Mary Sue she has white swirls in her fur.'  If you just have a grey she-cat, your readers will just be 'cool'.  Personally, cats with simple appearances are better to read about.  Whic story would your prefer?

"The plush, sparkly, silver she-cat strode up to confront Rainpaw."

"The grey she-cat strode up to confront Rainpaw."  

Long descriptions will not stay in your readers' minds unless you keep repeating them.  And if you do that, people get annoyed.  I have a similar problem with human stories.  Story is great and then . . . Someone walks into the room.  *sighs as the story is interrupted with two paragraphs of character description because the person is wearing a different outfit*  It just disrupts the flow of your story.

One last thing, that I forgot to mention earlier:  Stop putting marks in the shape of anything on a cat's head.  The likelihood of any kind of shape forming in a different colour in the perfect spot in the middle of a cat's forehead is nonexistent.  The only kind of mark you can expect is a blaze.  One of my cats is a ginger tabby, and he has a white blaze on his forehead.  It's just a shapeless meh of white on his head.  Like my sister had gotten a white paintbrush and done a small stroke on his head.  That is all.