Trolley 356

A Sainsbury's trolley captured outside the Post Office shed around the back. In the eaves of which I once tweeted some nesting great tits.

Picked up another, tucked in next to the firewater tank of reference 2 and then returned the pair to the stack. Where one was taken in charge before I could properly return it.

On the way back to the Screwfix tunnel I fell in with a lady who had been befriended by a pretty marmalade cat, not hers. She turned out to know all about both cats and African grey parrots, perhaps more accurately Congo grey parrots, with these last being of uncertain temper to her mind.

I mentioned by understanding the marmalade cats were all male, and she explained that she had thought that this was the case but had been disabused. And checking this afternoon, the story seems to be that females can be orange, but are not a common as orange males. The important bit of reference 3 goes: 'Well, it’s not that orange female cats are rare, it is simply that an orange cat is more likely to be a male. For a female cat to be orange, she must inherit two orange genes — one from her mother (orange, calico, or tortoiseshell) and one from her father (who must be orange). A male cat needs only one orange gene, which he gets from his mother (orange, calico, or tortoiseshell). This is because the gene that codes for orange fur is on the X chromosome, and like humans, females have two Xs and males are XY. Genes on the X chromosome are said to be sex-linked'. Clearly time to turn out my copy of reference 4 again, a paper which originally turned up when I was poking Turing's reaction diffusion model about. A poking which has yet to surface here.

Another factlet with which to amaze the world. Possibly the clients of TB, which does indeed appear to be open again, having been shut Christmas Day, as reported earlier.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/03/tweet_17.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/04/fire.html.

Reference 3: https://paws-and-effect.com/are-orange-female-cats-really-that-rare/.

Reference 4: How the Leopard Gets Its Spots: a single pattern-formation mechanism could underlie the wide variety of animal coat markings found in nature. Results from the mathematical model open lines of inquiry for the biologist - James D. Murray - 1988.