Hi, I’m Nicole! Read my introduction to learn more about me and my distinguished Burmese, Mr. Baby Cat.
It’s incredible to think how quickly technology and accessible resources have advanced thanks to the internet. I am a millennial, but I know I probably sound like someone born in the 1920s with that statement. I grew up with the internet and using Google as a verb, but the amount of knowledge (and information—it’s crucial to distinguish the two) accessible today versus even a decade ago, when Baby Cat waltzed his way into our lives, is nothing short of amazing.
If you read my husband’s recollection about how Baby Cat over the past two weeks, I’d say he did a very accurate job of telling the story but forgot one element.
When Baby Cat first turned up, we thought he was a she. I mean, she was the most beautiful cat we had ever seen, and with her being so snuggly and loving and kind, it just felt like she had feminine energy.
I had two cats growing up, both longhaired fluffy cats, and we were told when we adopted them that they were a boy and a girl. We never questioned it or tried to look. With all that fluff, it would have been quite invasive to take a peek, anyway.
So, I had absolutely no idea how to tell, but with Baby Cat being shorthaired, you could see his butt quite clearly. No matter how in my face it was, I had no idea what I was looking at. If I’m being completely honest, I actually saw what I saw (what I now know to be a neutered cat’s empty scrotal sac) and thought it was the genitals of a cat who had given birth a few times. I’ll leave the visuals to your imagination.
Our Little Princess
My husband didn’t dislike cats, but he was also more of a dog person before Baby turned up. I always spoke about getting a cat with him and he wouldn’t say no, he’d just respond with ‘Let’s get a dog.’
I feel like the universe had a bigger plan with us and Baby. I believe that us immediately thinking he was a she softened my husband up to her even more. When she was officially ours, she instantly became our little princess. We got her pink blankets, a pink harness, and even a pink litter box. She was our little diva and our little darling all mixed into one. Sugar, spice, and everything nice.
It’s not that we wouldn’t have still opened our hearts to him had we known he was a boy from the start, but I think we were gentler about it, feeling like she had given birth a few times and maybe was on the run, leaving her past behind her. She had tears in her ears from fighting, too, so we thought that maybe she had a rough upbringing and was seeking refuge in us. We provided it without thinking twice.
Our Princess Becomes Our King
Nearly a year after we met Baby, I was babysitting a friend’s kids. They had two cats, George and Holly, whom they adopted together from the SPCA. George was a boy and Holly was a girl.
George came and sat on my lap and started snuggling me, and Holly was a bit more aloof. I even remember thinking ‘That’s so weird that the boy is snuggly and the girl is not,’ since our girl was so snuggly.
But then, George got up to walk away from me, and I noticed his butt. It looked identical to Baby’s butt. The same loose-looking genitals of a cat who had given birth a few times.
‘That’s George, right?’ I confirmed when my friend got home later that day. He was orange, Holly was brown. There was no mistaking who they were. My brain went into ‘cannot compute’ mode and while I was there in body, my mind was absent for the rest of the conversation. I promptly got my things together and made up some excuse for why I needed to get home so quickly.
My husband was still out surfing, so I had some time to myself. I promptly went over to Baby cat and invaded her privacy, taking a quick look to confirm that her butt looked exactly like George’s.
Confirmed.
So, I took to Google. Shockingly, after pages of scrolling, not a single diagram appeared.
Next, YouTube. Again, nothing jumped out. I had no way of confirming that both George and Baby were boys other than taking the Auckland SPCA’s word for it, but how was I to share that news with my husband, who had left the house in the morning and kissed ‘his girls’ goodbye?
Finally, after nearly half an hour of searching, I found a veterinary clinic that had a video with a basic infographic and discussion of what to look for to sex a cat.
Confirmed.
When my husband got home, I sat him down next to Baby and told him I had something to tell him. I had no idea how to break the news, so I just blurted out: ‘Your little Princess is actually your little Prince.’
He looked at me, puzzled, and I had to explain the situation from start to finish, to which he then replied ‘He can’t be our little Prince, he’s our King!’
And the King was born.
How to Sex a Cat
Thankfully, my life has come full circle, and I now work for a pet company that specializes in helpful content for pet parents. That includes creating easy-to-read and accessible infographics for all sorts of situations, like sexing a cat!
Here it is below:
How Did Baby Cat React?
This may sound crazy, but my husband and I both saw Baby’s shoulders relax from the moment we said ‘She’s a he!’ We loved him just as much if not more than before.
We maintain that he understands English, and this was a pivotal moment for that belief. He started walking around the house with more confidence and wore his new blue harness and collar with pride (while he was always a bit salty with the pink one). I don’t know if that could be proven scientifically, I’m just here telling you what we experienced, so please don’t fact-check here.
Maybe we subconsciously treated him differently when we realized he was a boy, or maybe hearing us say he was a boy made him feel comfortable in his own skin again.
Or maybe he simply loved being the head of the household from that moment on and wore it in his stride.
This article is a part of Nicole and Baby Cat’s series.