The Truth About Calico Cats

All the kitties calico

Wear three hues of the cat rainbow.

Black, orange, white is what they show

And calicoes are girls, you know.

Why can't a male be tri-colored?

Here chromosome is the key word.

A female cat (a bit absurd)

From Mom and Dad and X rendered.

A boy cat, on the other hand

Receives from Ma and X.  That's grand.

The Y from Dad makes this cat manned

And now he has an X-Y strand.

Only X carries a hue:

Orange... black... but never blue.

White's a different gene  (It's true!)

And can be worn by all cat crew.

Say one X holds the color black.

Orange rides the next X-back.

Without two Xs, there's no knack

For a tri-color sneak attack.

A male can wear a hair tuxedo,

Don an orange fuzzy Speedo.

But hear this, the male cat's credo:

No three colors on the lido.

Some claim to have known tortie males.

Is that the stuf olf old wive's tales?

Genetic cat thought here prevails:

They've chromosomal cat cocktails.

Vet theory here.

Lanyard and earrings here.