Q: I’ve heard that if my pedigree cat is mated by a ‘mongrel’ tom, this will affect all her future litters. Is this true?

Answer: No, this is really a terrible old wives’ tale. It may be disappointing to find out that this is happened, especially if you were intending to mate her with a pedigree tome to obtain a litter a pedigree kittens, but it will in no way taint the kittens of future litters. Each kitten is formed from the urine of a mother’s egg and a father’s sperm. Egg and sperm both carry half of the total number of chromosomes, and therefore genes, that will be found in the cells of the kittens and which will determine its characteristics, such as appearance, temperaments, etc. The sperms do not survive any longer then a day at the outside, so there is no possibility of any of a previous father’s genes still being present two to three months later to influence the characteristics of subsequent kittens.