THE GREENS have long been a force to be reckoned with in Danish politics, and now even the cats are going green. A two-month-old green kitten, called Miss Greeny, achieved fame after being exhibited at the Natural History Museum in 脜rhus, Denmark, in November. But in the same way that enthusiasm for green politics generally has begun to wane, so Miss Greeny too is turning grey with advancing age. 鈥淚鈥檓 not sure she鈥檚 going to stay green,鈥� says Knud Steensborg, a vet in 脜rhus asked to investigate the case by Cat Fancy, a club for cat lovers in Denmark.
Vets originally thought that the green phenomenon might be explained by a metabolic defect which caused more copper than usual to accumulate in the kitten鈥檚 fur. However, Steensborg鈥檚 preliminary comparisons with fur from other cats show that the level of copper in Miss Greeny鈥檚 fur is actually lower than normal.
As an alternative theory, Steensborg suggests that the cat may have the feline equivalent of 鈥渂lue Doberman syndrome鈥�, a condition that makes Doberman pinschers鈥� hair turn greyish blue.
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