Heatherstar isn't the most memorable leader in the Warriors series, only being featured mainly in Tallstar's Revenge. But if you've ever taken a glance at the allegiances of the some of the super edition in which she leads WindClan, you might've noticed something - Heatherstar is described as a pinkish-gray cat with blue eyes. Now, this rare description can only lead a curious mind to one conclusion - Heatherstar is a kittypet.

Don't leave just yet; I have more explaining to do. I'll start by telling you two things: One, blue eyes do not often appear on non-white cats. And two, the coloring of her pelt is very rare and sought after by breeders.

In the picture above, the cat on the left is described as a 'pink furred cat.' Pink fur is a mutation found in Bulgarian cats, often in bi-color, pink-black-white calicos, and pink-Russian blue-white calicos. All of these colorings are very rare and sought after by breeders. None of these, however, match the description that we are given of Heatherstar.

Pink-gray coloring is more common than the above-mentioned mutation, but it is still quite rare and favored by breeders. It is more formally known as 'lavender' or 'lavender smoke', depending on if the belly of the cat is white or not.

The above picture shows a chocolate cat. The chocolate coloring is a light brown shade, often appearing in solid-pelted (or 'self') cats. This coat type comes from a mutation on the black fur gene, which changes a cat's fur color to the pelt shown above.

This pictures shows a typical lavender cat. Lavender coloring is the dilute of chocolate fur. The gene in a cat that makes a color dilute is dominant, but the solid coloring for chocolate cats is very uncommon, even among pedigree cats. Pair that with the dilution gene, and the chance that a solid lavender cat being born in a collection of feral cats is extremely uncommon.

The other piece of Heatherstar are her eyes. Blue eyes are rarely found in non-white cats, but they have become more common, thanks to breeding that spread the rare trait across cat populations.

However, there is a requirement for cats to have blue eyes and a colored coat. There are two main 'options'

First of all, they can have the piebald gene, or a white-spotting gene. This basically makes their coat spotted with white hairs. The spotting can range from large patches to only a very small section (e.x. a few hairs of color). If the section of white fur is around the eye, then a non-white cat can have blue eyes.

If Heatherstar has the piebald gene, then it is not visible. She is never described as having any white spotting, and the chance of a cat having the minimum (a few hairs of white fur) that appears around their eye is quite small.

Second of all, they can be one of the following breeds:

Balinese

Birman

Foreign white

Himalayan

Javanese

Ojos Azules

Ragdoll

Siamese

Snowshoe

Turkish Angora

Heatherstar is described as a thick-pelted cat, but she is probably not a long haired one. This rules out Himalayan, Ragdoll, Birman, Balinese, and Turkish Angora breeds, which are all long haired cats. Foreign white, Javanese, and Siamese are all cats from Asia, which have distinctive features that do not match Heatherstar's description. This leaves Snowshoe and Ojos Azules as options for Heatherstar's breed.

Snowshoe cats have a generally recognizable coat pattern (shown below), so it is very unlikely that our lavender-furred friend is a Snowshoe.

This leaves the breed of Ojos Azules, translating from Spanish into "Blue Eyes", as the only option for Heatherstar's breed.

The first Ojos Azules cat ever discovered was born in New Mexico in a feral cat population. Her name was Cornflower, and she was a tortoiseshell (which, as I will remind you, is a cat with a mix of two non-white colors in their pelt) with deep blue eyes. She was bred with males who did not have the trait [of blue eyes], and all her kits had the same eyes, which means the trait was dominant.

If two Ojos Azules cats are bred together, then their kit will have a homozygous set of genes, meaning two genes that are the same. Having homozygous Ojos Azules genes creates genetic disformities like cranial (an are of the brain) deformations, white fur, stillbirth, and a small, curled tail. If a Ojos Azules cat is bred with a non-Ojos cat, then the kits will be perfectly healthy.

So this checks out, right? Heatherstar could be an Ojos Azule cat who also happens to have a lavender-furred pelt.

Well, there's one more problem - Ojos Azules cat are ridiculously rare. In 1992, only ten Ojos Azules cats were recognized by the TICA (a cat breeding organization).

This brings me to my final conclusion - Heatherstar was a specially bred cat who escaped into the wild. The probability of having a chocolate fur mutation, with a dilution gene, AND being an Ojos Azule is just too rare for a feral cat to have.

But, as always, that's just a theory. A WARRIORS theory. Thanks for reading :) 

Written by Rio and posted by Ember. :)