This Summer's Most Wanted Captures!

Summer is often slow for sellers, and busy for everyone as people work extra hours, move, go on vacation, and use the break in starter/collection releases to clean up the cattery. It has definitely been a busy summer for the SagaKitty KittyCatS!™ Most Wanted! Contest! We've had 3 new captures and quite a few tips that helped us narrow down the location of some of our most wanted traits!

Let's start with this summer's captures!

On May 30th JuniperJazz, who often goes by the name Junie, captures the placement of Domino 3 and Flame 3, proving that Domino 3 is dominant to Flame 3. Don't let those genesis furs fool you into thinking they're innocent: This capture helps us place the entire range of Genesis 3 furs! Since Smokey 2 (the most dominant of the Genesis 2 furs) is recessive to Flame 3 (now known as the most recessive of the Genesis 3 furs), this means that the entire range of Genesis 2 furs is recessive to the entire range of Genesis 3 furs. If we keep at it, we'll have an entire list of all the Genesis furs in their proper locations!

August 20th was a very busy day for Fabioazevedo Oh (no relation to Charles' better half, Poppy Oh). Fabio captured the location of the elusive Ocicat Black and Pandie Flame.

Junie and Fabio won Epic Prize Boxes for their hard work.

We also had a number of tips that helped us narrow down some of our most wanted traits:

• On May 23rd, Draco Nacht narrowed down the Ocicat Black fur, proving it was recessive to the Australian Mist Lilac Marble.
• On May 26th, Junie narrowed down Odyssey Slush as being recessive to Gerbera Purple. She further narrowed it down on June 14th when she proved it was dominant to the retired Mercury.
• On July 28th, Aramis Gontineac proved that Tapestry Harvest is recessive to Midnight Sky. Aramis is working hard to hunt down the exact location of the Tapestry Harvest!
• On August 1st, Rheaven Tussaud and Marishka Moody found out that Odyssey Crystal Rose is dominant to Lucky Irish Clover. Rheaven and Marishka have also been working hard on a number of captures!

Draco's kitty (Pilgrim) with a SagaKitty hat
Click to open in a new window.

Junie's kitty (Ginny) with her SagaKitty hat

If you have pictures of you and/or your kitty with the prizes you've won, send full perm textures to SagaKitty in SL or email them to SagaKittySL at gmail.com, and we'll post them! :)

There are still many more traits to go! Also, since all of the non-genesis furs on the list have been captured, we've added four more to the KittyCatS!™ Most Wanted Proofs list:

• Pandie Ebony & Ivory
• Foxie Argyle
• Foxie Red Mask
• Chateau Slate & White No. 1

We want to thank the community for continuing to work with diligence and patience to clean up those charts. We know we'll see more results from you all very soon! :)

Remember that anyone who captures a proof wins an epic prize box containing:

• A $L500 Gift Card for Somnia by Sanura Snowpaw
• A 1 week rental of 100 prim Pergola at FelineS KittyCatS
• A Gift card for one KittyCatS collar of your choice made by Julia Merosi of FelineS KittyCatS
• A 2-week Love Shack Rental at Too Adorable
• A super cute one-of-a-kind multi-pose “Me and My Kitty” pillow by Beloved Ruby of ScratchN Post – this item can only be obtained by contest winners and is not available to anyone else on the grid!
• A beautiful one-of-a-kind hearts collar hand crafted by Nino Heartsdale, the Mad Cat Lady - this item can only be obtained by contest winners and is not available to anyone else on the grid!
• A $L200/$K500 KittyCatS!™ gift certificate, usable in the KittyCatS!™ main store or the KittyCatS!™ Cattery

Also remember that anyone who narrows down a trait wins a one-of-a-kind knitted hat lovingly made by Bree Ann, specifically for this contest!

If you haven't yet heard of the contest or need more info, please see the blog post KittyCatS!™ Most Wanted! Contest.

Until then, thanks for reading and may all your dream kitties come true! :)

Info About Confetti Cats!

Unless you've been away from SL for a while, you've heard of the new Confetti KittyCatS!™ that you can buy with your Menagerie $K. These cute little fur-balls of rainbow cuteness have caused a bit of confusion for many breeders. I had a chat with Kitten Longmeadow and was able to get some answers to a lot of questions and to clarify some facts about Confetti KittyCatS!™ Thanks, Kitten, for your eternal patience. :)

The fur that the Confetti Starter cats show (this is not a costume fur!) is called Cocoberry. Here is a summary of what can be confirmed about the Cocoberry fur:

Cocoberry is a genesis fur and is passable: if you breed Cocoberry onto another cat, you can pass that fur to other cats via breeding.

Other Confetti furs are passable: if you breed 2 Confetti Starter cats and get a special Confetti fur, you can pass that fur to other cats via breeding.

Can a Confetti Starter cat hide the Cocoberry fur? They have chosen not to give us the answer to this question and prefer that we figure it out for ourselves.

FYI: Chance of Confetti Furs

Unlike other "special" cats, you have a chance of breeding out a Confetti fur from your Confetti Starter KittyCatS!™ on every breeding, not just the first breeding.

But there's more! What really happens when you breed two Confetti Starter KittyCatS!™ cats together?

Review of Starter Breeding:

When 2 Starters breed, they each throw their shown or hidden traits. For example, let's say we have:
Starter Mom: showing Domino V and hiding Bengal Black
Starter Dad: showing Diamond V and hiding Snowshoe Red
When Mom and Dad breed, there are four possible outcomes:
1. Mom's shown Domino V + Dad's shown Diamond V
- this will give you a kitten showing Domino V and hiding Diamond V, because Domino V is more dominant (or Diamond V is more recessive) - the Diamond V will hide behind the Domino V.
2. Mom's shown Domino V + Dad's hidden Snowshoe Red
- this will give you a kitten showing Domino V and hiding Snowshoe Red, since Domino V is more dominant than Snowshoe Red.
3. Mom's hidden Bengal Black + Dad's shown Diamond V
- this will give you a kitten showing Diamond V and hiding Bengal Black, since Bengal black is recessive to Diamond V.
4. Mom's hidden Bengal Black + Dad's hidden Snowshoe Red
- this will give you a kitten showing Snowshoe Red and hiding Bengal Black, because Bengal Black is recessive to Snowshoe Red.

Breeeding Confetti Starter KittyCatS!™:

With Confetti Starter cats, it's more complicated. Each Confetti Starter cat shows the white Cocoberry fur and hides a Confetti fur (at the time this post was last updated, the Appleberry, Blueberry, and Cherryberry have been discovered). Each cat also has a normal genesis fur and hides a non-genesis fur.

So when a Confetti Starter cat breeds to another Confetti Starter cat, they first have to randomly decide if they're going to pass a Confetti fur. There are two possible outcomes:
1. Yes, let's pass our Confetti furs!
2. No, let's not pass our Confetti furs.

If the result is 1. Yes, let's pass our Confetti furs! Then one of the following things will happen:

a) Mom's shown Cocoberry + Dad's shown Cocoberry gives a kitten showing Cocoberry
b) Mom's shown Cocoberry + Dad's hidden Confetti fur gives a kitten showing Cocoberry and hiding a Confetti fur from Dad.
c) Mom's hidden Confetti fur + Dad's shown Cocoberry gives a kitten showing Cocoberry and hiding a Confetti fur from Mom.
d) Mom's hidden Confetti fur + Dad's hidden Confetti fur gives a kitten showing the more dominant Confetti fur and hiding the more recessive Confetti fur.

FYI: Dominant Cocoberry

Note that if a Confetti Starter KittyCatS!™ (which shows Cocoberry fur) can hide a Confetti fur (e.g. Appleberry), then the Cocoberry must be more dominant than any other Confetti fur.

If the result is 2. Let's not pass our Confetti furs, then breeding proceeds as it will with two normal starter cats.

Confetti Starter KittyCatS!™ are otherwise like regular starters: they are guaranteed to hide 6 non-genesis traits (fur, eye colour, tail, ears, whisker shape, whisker colour).

When will the Confetti furs be added to the SagaCharts?

As soon as we start receiving solid and indisputable proofs of the dominance and recessiveness of the Confetti furs :D

I hope that answers everyone's questions about the Confetti KittyCats!™ Good luck with your kitties, and may all your kitty dreams come true!

The Proof is in the Pussy 2 - Finding a New Most Recessive Trait

I was going to talk about something else for our second issue but I had a bit of an interesting discovery this week: finding out that Exotic Journey is the new most recessive eye. I was going to talk about finding a "new most recessive" trait at a later date, but we might as well cover it now.

Finding a "new most recessive" trait can be difficult! We often breed our starter cats with the most recessive things we have because it helps to draw out more dominant traits. However, when you breed a starter with a cat with a most recessive trait and get that same trait back, is it because your cat is hiding that trait, or is it hiding something new and more recessive? I had this issue when I bred a starter with a Dry Olive eyed kitty and got a kitten with Dry Olive eyes back. Was the starter hiding Dry Olive, or was it hiding something that was more recessive to Dry Olive that we didn't know about? It turned out that the starter was hiding Exotic Journey, a newer eye discovered in May but not yet on the Saga Charts. Here's how I found it in the starter. :)

Exotic Journey pedigree:

Click to open in a new window.

If you look at the above pedigree, you'll see the grand-dad on both sides is the same Easter Starter kitty, Tija.

The starter kitty Tija was bred with an Odyssey Bellini kitty first, and they passed Odyssey Bellini, so I figured that the resulting kitten, Nugget, was hiding Tija's hidden, which was unknown to me at the time. It was also possible that the Ody Bellini mom (Patience) was hiding something more recessive than Ody Bellini (in fact, she could have been hiding Exotic Journey! I'll talk about that later.) In that case, the starter's hidden could have gone up against the more recessive eye behind the Ody Bellini, making the same Ody Bellini kitten, except that this kitten's shown would be the starter's hidden, and the kitten's hidden would be the partner's hidden. In order to find out, I had to breed Tija with a more recessive eye and see if it would draw out Ody Bellini, or something else.

I then bred Tija with a Dry Olive kitty and got Dry Olive on Rufford. At this point I knew Tija was hiding at least Dry Olive, and perhaps something more recessive. If the latter, then I knew Rufford was hiding that more recessive eye, also. Now I also knew that Nugget got her shown eye from her mom's shown Ody Bellini and her hidden from Tija - if Tija was hiding Dry Olive or more recessive, then Nugget's Ody Bellini must have come from her mom. This also meant Nugget was also hiding Tija's hidden.

Was Tija just hiding Dry Olive, or something new and more recessive?? There are a couple of ways to find out - back breed Nugget to Tija or breed Nugget and Rufford together.

Which option would be better? Let's look at the possible outcomes of each:

A. Breeding Nugget to Tija:

• Nugget Ody Bellini + Tija Genesis Meadow = Genesis Meadow (Ody Bellini)
• Nugget Ody Bellini + Tija hidden = Ody Bellini (Tija hidden)
• Nugget/Tija hidden + Tija Genesis Meadow = Genesis Meadow (Tija hidden)
• Nugget/Tija hidden + Tija hidden = Tija hidden (Tija hidden)

Breeding Nugget and Tija gives a 25% chance of getting that hidden eye out, but 50% of the kittens will show Genesis Meadow. Of those Genesis Meadow kittens, I'd have no way of knowing which ones hid Ody Bellini and which ones hid Tija's hidden eye. There's also a 25% chance of getting an Ody Bellini kitten hiding Tija's hidden. This cat could also be used to breed out that hidden eye.

B. Breeding Nugget to Rufford:

• Nugget Ody Bellini + Rufford Dry Olive = Ody Bellini (Dry Olive)
• Nugget Ody Bellini + Rufford/Tija hidden = Ody Bellini (Tija hidden)
• Nugget/Tija hidden + Rufford Dry Olive = Dry Olive (Tija hidden)
• Nugget/Tija hidden + Rufford/Tija hidden = Tija hidden (Tija hidden)

Breeding Nugget to Rufford also gives a 25% chance of getting that hidden eye. We also have a 50% chance of getting Ody Bellini, and of those, we wouldn't know which hid Dry Olive and which hid Tija's hidden eye. There's also a 25% chance of getting a Dry Olive kitty which hides Tija's hidden eye.

The odds are the same but I usually go with option B because:

the "duds" that result in option B are prettier cats showing a nice eye and could be used for other things, or sold

option B keeps Tija available for further breeding

However, there's a big disadvantage:

if option B keeps giving Dry Olive kittens, is it because Tija is hiding Dry Olive or just because my luck is terrible and I'm not making the 25% chance of getting the hidden out (I have a history of such horrible luck!) I could breed these 2 cats forever and never really know!

at least with option A if I get a bunch of Ody Bellini cats, I know they're all hiding Tija's hidden eye. I could breed those together and get the hidden eye that way, and there would be absolutely no doubt that this was Tija's hidden eye. If they give Dry Olive, Tija is hiding Dry Olive. If they give something else, that's Tija's hidden eye.

I decided to go with option B for a while, and if that didn't produce results in a few breedings, I would back breed Nugget with Tija. I still don't know Tija's hidden tail or whisker shape so I want to breed Tija with other cats for a while and draw those out.

So we know what happened: I bred Nugget and Rufford together and out came the Exotic Journey! This eye must be recessive to Dry Olive because it was hiding behind Rufford's shown Dry Olive eye. Recall the four options that could have resulted:

a. Nugget's shown Ody Bellini + Rufford's shown Dry Olive: This gives us a kitten showing Odyssey Bellini and hiding Dry Olive. This is not what I got.

b. Nugget's shown Ody Bellini + Rufford's hidden eye: This gives us a kitten showing Odyssey Bellini and hiding Tija's/Rufford's hidden eye. This is also not what I got.

Note that if you get a kitten from a. or b. you won't be able to tell which it is: Ody Bellini hiding Dry Olive or Ody Bellini hiding Tija's hidden? You'd have to breed it to find out.

c. Nugget's hidden eye + Rufford's Dry Olive: This gives us a kitten showing the more dominant eye of the two. Both Nugget and Rufford are hiding the same eye. If that hidden eye + Dry Olive gave us Dry Olive, that would make sense. If that hidden eye + Dry Olive gave us the hidden eye, that would make no sense: how could the hidden eye of Nugget be dominant to Dry Olive if Rufford is also hiding that same eye behind his Dry Olive? Therefore, this would produce a Dry Olive kitten, which is not what I got. Note to Recall: A kitten with Nugget's shown eye is hiding Tija's hidden eye!

d. Nugget's hidden eye + Rufford's hidden eye: This would give us a kitten showing the more dominant of the two eyes. I know Nugget and Rufford are both hiding Tija's hidden, but I figured it was just Dry Olive. If that was the case, then this would produce a kitten showing Dry Olive. But that's not what I got: I got Exotic Journey. There's only one place for that Exotic Journey eye to have come from: from Nugget's and Rufford's hidden eye, which is also Tija's hidden eye!

So option D is the only option that would produce the Exotic Journey kitten. This therefore proves:
Exotic Journey is Tija's hidden eye, therefore:
Rufford hides Exotic Journey, making Exotic Journey recessive to Dry Olive, therefore:
Exotic Journey is the new most recessive eye.

Note About New Most Recessive Traits:

Because they have such a huge effect on pricing and breeding decisions, we require two solid, independent proofs of any "new most recessive" trait. This is only the first proof. We need a second proof from a different breeder (even the SagaKitty team members are not exempt from the rules! :D )
If you have any further proof that Exotic Journey is recessive to Dry Olive, please pass them on to SagaKitty Resident, or SagaKittySL@gmail.com :)

Another Possibility

It's also possible, but extremely unlikely, that the cats bred to Tija had been hiding Exotic Journey or something more recessive - traits that seem "new" aren't necessarily from the latest release: they could have been hiding undiscovered for a while, as was the case with the Ocicat Chocolate back in 2011 (it was found in the Halloween kitties but turned out to be from a release much earlier in the year and had been hanging around hidden in my July starter cats all that time - I told you I had horrible luck! ;) ) So when we're evaluating proofs for brand new traits that we don't have information for, we always take into account, "What if the starter's PARTNER was hiding this new trait?"

What if Rufford's mom hid Exotic Journey (or something more recessive we don't know about, yet)?
Then Exotic Journey would have to be recessive to Dry Olive, because Rufford's mom is showing Dry Olive. We'd end up with the same proof that Exotic Journey is recessive to Dry Olive.
What would that say about Tija? Tija could be hiding Dry Olive, Exotic Journey, or something new and more recessive that we don't even know about, yet.

What if Nugget's mom hid Exotic Journey (or something recessive to Ody Bellini, including something recessive to Exotic Journey that we don't know about, yet)?

Assuming we didn't know how dominant/recessive Exotic Journey is, that would mean that it's at least recessive to Ody Bellini (remember Nugget's mom shows Ody Bellini). Therefore, Nugget would have to be:
1. Mom's shown Ody Bellini + Tija's hidden = Ody Bellini, meaning Tija is hiding Ody Bellini or more recessive.
2. Mom's hidden + Tija's hidden = Ody Bellini, meaning Tija is hiding Ody Bellini and Nugget's mom (and Nugget) is hiding something more recessive, which could be anything from Grotto to Dry Olive, or Exotic Journey, or something more recessive that we don't know about, yet.

If #1, then we're back at the beginning: Rufford proves that Tija is hiding Dry Olive or more recessive, therefore Nugget is also hiding Dry Olive or more recessive. Breeding Nugget and Rufford gives us a 25% chance to find out what this hidden eye is. And that's what I did, and I got Exotic Journey. So we end up with the same proof.
What would this say about Tija? That Tija is hiding Dry Olive, Exotic Journey, or something more recessive to Exotic Journey that we don't even know about, yet. I'm going on the more likely assumption that Tija is hiding Exotic Journey, but to be sure, I'm breeding out all of his offspring that I know are hiding his hidden eye.

If #2, then Rufford would not make any sense: how could a Dry Olive cat + a starter hiding Ody Bellini produce a Dry Olive kitten like Rufford? That's impossible, so this can't be the case.

What if BOTH Nugget's mom and Rufford's mom are hiding Exotic Journey, or something more recessive that we don't know about, yet? Very unlikely, but is it possible? We can't assume anything :P so let's examin this possibility:

If both Nugget's mom (Patience) and Rufford's Mom (Junie) are hiding Exotic Journey or something more recessive, this means that:

Rufford would be
a. Dry Olive (from Tija's hidden) hiding Exotic Journey or something more recessive from mom
or
b. Dry Olive (from mom's shown) hiding Dry Olive or something more recessive from Tija

Nugget would be
c. Ody Bellini (from mom's shown) hiding something more recessive from Tija
or
d. Ody Bellini (Tija's hidden) and hiding Exotic Journey or something more recessive from mom

This gives us combinations that make no sense and are therefore impossible:

a + d is not a valid combination: Nugget can't be showing Ody Bellini from Tija if Rufford is showing Dry Olive from Tija - that would mean that Tija is hiding both Ody Bellini and Dry Olive, which is impossible.

b + d is not a valid combination: if d is true, then Tija is hiding Ody Bellini, which makes Rufford impossible - he can't be Dry Olive from mom hiding Ody Bellini from Tija.

a + c is not a valid combination: if a is true, then Nugget is Ody Bellini (mom's shown) hiding Dry Olive (a says that Rufford shows Tija's hidden Dry Olive). This leads to no valid combinations that would give an Exotic Journey eye:

• Nugget's Ody Bellini + Rufford's Dry Olive would give Ody Bellini
• Nugget's Ody Bellini + Rufford's hidden Exotic Journey+ would give Ody Bellini
• Nugget's hidden Dry Olive + Rufford's Dry Olive would give Dry Olive
• Nugget's hidden Dry Olive + Rufford's hidden Exotic Journey+ would give Dry Olive

None of these gives the Exotic Journey kitten we received from Nugget and Rufford

This leaves us with the combination of b + c
Rufford: Dry Olive (from mom) hiding Tija's hidden
Nugget: Ody Bellini (from mom) hiding Tija's hidden
This is what we started with and we used this to prove that Tija is hiding Exotic Journey and that Exotic Journey is recessive to Dry Olive.

That's it for this issue! Feel free to ask questions or make comments and suggestions. Until next time, may all your kitty dreams come true!

KittyCatS!™ Most Wanted Captures!!

The KittyCatS!™ Most Wanted! Contest have their first two captures!!

On May 12th AstridSolace, more famously known as Bunny NomNom, captured the first proof on our KittyCatS!™ Most Wanted Proofs List! Bunny had recently heard about the reward for some of the missing proofs and was walking through her cattery when she saw some suspicious activity. She investigated, and found proof that Genesis Flame III is dominant to Genesis Smokey II! She copied down the cats' information and brought it to the SagaKitty team, where we added it to our database. This will help the team work towards finding the order of all those Genesis furs that are running wild in the Saga Charts! Congratulations to Bunny for her keen eye and we thank her for this important catch! Bunny has won an Epic Prize Box full of goodies for her capture!

In the early hours of May 13th, we received a communication from the famous duo Rheaven and Marishka Tussaud. Rheaven and Mariskha have been on the lookout for proof of the Tonkinese Blue Mink and Maine Coon Plush Calico for quite a long time. When they heard about the reward being offered for this proof, they quickly dove into action and worked at capturing this proof that has been bugging many breeders for quite some time. Their hard work was rewarded when they produced a Maine Coon kitten from two Tonkinese Blue Mink parents, proving that Tonkinese Blue Mink Tortie is dominant to Maine Coon Plush Calico! They have also been rewarded with an Epic Prize Box for their hard work and persistence with this capture! We congratulate Rheaven and Marishka and thank them for their diligence in tracking down this very important proof!

There are still many more proofs to narrow down and capture so keep on working hard! We want to thank the community for continuing to work with diligence and patience to clean up those charts. We know we'll see more results from you all very soon! :)

Remember that anyone who captures a proof wins an epic prize box containing:

• A $L500 Gift Card for Somnia by Sanura Snowpaw
• A 1 week rental of 100 prim Pergola at FelineS KittyCatS
• A Gift card for one KittyCatS collar of your choice made by Julia Merosi of FelineS KittyCatS
• A 2-week Love Shack Rental at Too Adorable
• A super cute one-of-a-kind multi-pose “Me and My Kitty” pillow by Beloved Ruby of ScratchN Post – this item can only be obtained by contest winners and is not available to anyone else on the grid!
• A beautiful one-of-a-kind hearts collar hand crafted by Nino Heartsdale, the Mad Cat Lady - this item can only be obtained by contest winners and is not available to anyone else on the grid!
• A $L200/$K500 KittyCatS!™ gift certificate, usable in the KittyCatS!™ main store or the KittyCatS!™ Cattery

Also remember that anyone who narrows down a trait wins a one-of-a-kind knitted hat lovingly made by Bree Ann, specifically for this contest!

If you haven't yet heard of the contest or need more info, please see the blog post KittyCatS!™ Most Wanted! Contest.

In a future article coming soon, I'll show you the proofs that were submitted and we'll go over how they work! Until then, thanks for reading and may all your dream kitties come true! :)