Some guests at the cats-only boarding facility are family in name only; others are actually from the same litter… or at least the same bloodline!
We have a pair of brothers from the same litter who (thankfully) don’t look alike. One cat is black and white; the other is an orange tabby. Their only common feature is a stunted tail — about half as long as you’d expect a cat’s tail to be. But with those matching tails, they’re most definitely kin.
We have, however, had some guests from the same litter who are virtually identical.
Those can be tricky! While each guest does get his or her own condo, we do often put cats from the same family into the playroom together for exercise. Once they’re in, the question is — how do we put the right cat back into the right condo afterwards?
There’s a pair of handsome white male cats who are nearly mirror images of each other. Even weighing them can be tricky — there’s barely a pound of difference between the two. But eventually, we figured out the trick: one cat has a slight almond-shape to his eyes and the other does not.
There’s a pair of female Bengal cats who have stayed with us twice. They aren’t quite as identical as the two white cats are… but they’re close. The trick for telling these girls apart is the patterns on their coats. One cat has more of a striped pattern and the other has a slightly spotty pattern.
In order to help keep the guests straight, we write notes in the cat’s chart and on their name card. For the two white cats, one card says “squinty eyes” and the other card says “round eyes”. For the two Bengals, one card says “stripey” and the other says “spotty”. The system has worked so far! (It’d be easier for us if all guests wore collars with ID tags, but not everyone makes their cat wear a collar.)