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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/07/cats-protection-charity-seeks-home-kitten-neither-male-nor-female>
"A homeless kitten has stunned vets at a UK animal charity, being the first cat
they have seen that is neither male nor female.
Hope, a 15-week-old tabby and white cat, was originally thought to be female
when it was admitted to the Cats Protection rescue centre in Warrington, but
vets found no external sex organs.
Cats Protection’s senior field veterinary officer, Fiona Brockbank, said it
appeared to be a case of agenesis – the failure of an organ to develop – which
she and her colleagues had never seen before.
Vets said they had seen hermaphrodite cats – with male and female sex organs –
though they were rare. However, after an investigation, they found Hope had no
sex organs, externally or internally.
Brockbank said: “There’s an outside possibility of some ectopic ovarian tissue
hiding away internally but we think this is extremely unlikely … This is so
rare that there isn’t really a commonly used term for this condition, but it is
effectively sexual organ agenesis.
“While this means we don’t have any previous cases [on which] to base our
knowledge of how this will affect Hope in the future, we spent time monitoring
this cat to ensure they can urinate and defecate appropriately before they were
considered ready for rehoming.”
Hope, who is described as a playful kitten, has endeared itself to staff and
volunteers at Cats Protection’s Warrington adoption centre, where it was first
admitted and underwent investigations, and the Tyneside adoption centre in
Gateshead.
The Tyneside centre manager, Beni Benstead, said: “Discovering Hope’s special
status has been an exciting time, as none of us has seen this before or is
likely to again."
Via Gary Hill and Christoph S.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
