Rescued, starving feral cat has come a long way and is now a therapy cat at San Francisco Airport

His name now is the elaborate 'Duke Ellington Morris'. He used to be a starving and ill feral cat back in 2010 when he was rescued from a colony. He spent some time at the SPCA before being adopted by a mother and daughter.

Duke Ellington Morris an airport therapy cat who was a starving feral cat until rescued. Image: Instagram.

They discovered that he had the character to be a therapy cat and became one. At that time San Francisco Airport used dogs as companion animals to calm anxious travellers. Airports are places where travellers can become anxious so it is a nice idea to use domestic animals to calm them.

The airport used dogs and has now expanded their little group of therapy animals ('the Wag Brigade') to include Duke Ellington Morris, who has his own Instagram account and a rabbit called Alex and LilLou the pig.

They are all certified by the San Francisco SPCA as therapy animals and have graduated from therapy animal school with a certificate to say that they have been passed the Animal Assisted Therapy Program.

Duke appears to have always demonstrated a temperament ideally suited to therapy animal work.

Tuxedo cats: 10 facts.

His is a regular male tuxedo cat; a black-and-white cat. He looks nice in his therapy cat uniform. As mentioned, he was rescued as a starving feral cat. He is 'paying it forward' as they say in the United States (respond to a person's kindness to oneself by being kind to someone else).

Press photographers surround Socks, the Clinton family cat, in Little Rock, Ark., in 1992

This sort of photograph always amuses me. I used to be a photographer back in the 1970s. The main part of my business was photographing actors for promotional, handout portraits for casting purposes. Although I did variety of work including press photography and portraits of other celebrities which were published in magazines. So I know a bit about professional photography. It was harder in those days because digital cameras were unheard of. They had not been invented. I found it very hard to make a living out of it which is why I eventually became a solicitor. More stable work.

Press photographers surround Socks, the Clinton family cat, in Little Rock, Ark., in 1992. Photo: Mike Nelson - AFP via Getty Images. I claim fair use! 

Digital cameras became pretty common in the 1990s and the photograph on this page was taken in 1992 by Mike Nelson. I suspect that this is a film photograph i.e. was taken with 35mm film rather than digitally. It has that quality and there is some grain. I will also presume that all the guys you see in the photograph were using 35mm film cameras. Perhaps professional photographers were slow to take up digital cameras. As they weren't that good in the early years, perhaps there was good reason.

The man lying down, getting dirty, at cat height on the sidewalk is the press photographer getting the best photograph, by far. All the other press photographers are photographing Socks' back! Of course, they are waiting for that moment when Socks turns around and looked up at them.

ASSOCIATED: US PRESIDENTS WHO LIVED WITH A CAT

But you get a much better cat photograph if you get down and dirty to the level of the domestic cat. It is uncomfortable. And cats are hard to photograph even when cooperative. Although some positively hate being photographed. You point the camera at them and they think you are taking their soul from them like the secretive and isolated Amazonian tribes. It helps to have a second person 'wraggling' the cat or cats. Or even a third!

Perhaps the best photograph taken that day is the one we see on this page: of photographers taking a photograph! The Bidens are about to introduce their new cat to the White House. Will there be problems with their German Shepherd Major?

Is the tuxedo cat a breed or not?

Binnie

I'm sure that most people know the answer this question because cats have been discussed on the Internet for about 10 years now.  The tuxedo cat is not a breed of cat.

This is a certain type of cat coat that is black-and-white with not much white so that the cat has the appearance of wearing a tuxedo which is formal dress wear the men: the penguin suit.

The classic pattern gives the cat a button of white on the chest but as shown in the photo the area of white can be more extensive.

A lot of the breed standards for a wide variety of cat breeds allow their cats to be black-and-white and some of these cats will be tuxedo cats.

It all depends on the breed standard as to what is allowed regarding the coat of the cat with respect to a particular cat breed.

Black-and-White or White-and-Black Cat?

Here's a little dilemma. To be honest I have never given it much thought and probably shouldn't. We, who like cats, refer to black and white cats that have a coat made up of black fur and white fur. Obvious. Common sense. But have a look at this picture:

Main original photo by Mark Nockleby

In the old days it seems that when the cat had a predominance of white fur the cat was called a white-and-black cat (with the hyphens in between the words). The ground color is white with black markings on top. In fact they were considered "entirely different" to black and white cats.  In bygone days at cat shows black and white and white and black cats where exhibited and the general guide for success for white and black cats was that the black markings were evenly distributed over the white ground color in a nice balanced fashion.

For black and white cats the "chief points of excellence for show purposes are a dense bright brown-black, evenly marked with white". The classic black and white cat nowadays is what is termed the tuxedo cat and variations on it. The reference to brown-black in the quote is interesting because black fur is brown but today cat fanciers don't write about that in such an open fashion.

Note: Quotes from Our Cats and all about them by Harrison Weir. This book is available from Read Country Books (you can buy through Amazon). You can also download it for free on Kindle:

Black And White Cat Cross Over Processing!

Vic and the feather, a photo by fofurasfelinas on Flickr.

Yes, this is a very interesting photograph by Giane Portal (Flickr username: forfurasfelinas). Love the photo because it is very evocative. It looks old fashioned yet alive and alert. Please note that the photograph is protected by copyright.

The cross processing is what gives this image a slightly "other world" feel; an almost antique feel.

In this instance the cross-processing was achieved digitally - things have changed dramatically.

When I was a professional photographer (I never was able to make a living from it despite getting published nationally) we did real cross over processing.  Sometimes we did it to give the image a new look, something different. People like change you know!

So, you might process colour transparency film in colour negative chemicals (C41 process). Or you might do it the other way around or something different. It didn't matter. It was messy whatever it was. Those were the days of darkrooms and careful temperature and time controls. God we never got enough daylight - vitamin D.

Now you can simulate and replicate the same process on the computer - usually using Photoshop. And I think Giane has done a great job here. It is subtle and it enhances the image; it doesn't always!

The cat is "Vic" and he is exercising his predatory instincts in chasing a cat tease,  a feather on the end of a stick in this instance.

See another one of Giane's photographs of a black and white cat that is completely different.

Black And White Cat

Super Sophisticated, a photo by fofurasfelinas on Flickr. Copyright Giane Portal.

The black and white cat is a very commonly encountered type of domestic cat. That does not make it any less beautiful or less important. The tabby is the other most commonly encountered cat coat.

Black and white cat photos

The fine photograph illustrating this page is by Giane Portal, Flickr name: fofurasfelinas. She titled the picture: "Super Sophisticated". The cat is named, "Madonna". This is a classy black and white cat picture. It is protected by copyright please note.

by alan_i_think

You can see many more black and white cat photos on Flickr. The one adjacent is interesting don't you think?

Black and white cat names

People search for black and white cat names. Uhmm..not sure if cat names come very easily for black and white cats. "Ace" short for card the ace of spades is quite nice and "Harley".  I am thinking of the clown that wears black and white checked clothes and other colours.

Black and white cat breeds

Well, there are no cat breeds that are only black and white cats. This is because black and white refers to the colour and pattern of the coat not the breed.

There are, though, cat breeds such as the Maine Coon that are allowed to have coats under the breed standard that are black and white. The breed standards of the cat associations dictate what the cat breeds should look like for showing purposes. Some cat breeds are allowed a wide range of colours and patterns such as the Maine Coon and British Shorthair while some can only be one colour (e.g. the Chartreux, a grey cat breed).

Here is RW, SGC Magnacats Jack Black a gorgeous Maine Coon who I have held. He is a champion (Regional Winner and Supreme Grand Champion).

Black and white Maine Coon, Jack Black
Photo copyright Helmi Flick

All the photos and text on this page are protected by copyright © except where indicated. Violations of copyright are reported to Google.com (DMCA).

Black and white cat genetics

These are black cats with the white fur caused by the presence of the white spotting or piebald gene. This gene masks the colour.

The white spotting can be large of small in size. Many Mediterranean cats have large areas of white and have van type coats (colour around the ears and on the tail) or small areas of black. This coat is probably better in hot climates.

Black and white cats are bi-color cats (two colors). These are also called, "solid and white" cats. The word "solid" referring to continuous color in the hair strands as opposed to broken pigmentation as is the case for tabby cats.

When the area of white is in the form of a locket on the chest, the cat can be called a "tuxedo cat". The size of the area of white on the chest can vary in size but must not be so large as to undermine the concept of the male human form of dress wear. When the white is on the feet the pattern is called "mitted" (as if the cat is wearing mittens - gloves). Snowhoe cats are mitted and Ragdolls can be mitted.

Here is my lady cat, who I would call a tuxedo cat:

Black and white cat "Binnie". She is 19 years old now.

From black and white cat to cat colony