The other night, I was lying in bed looking over some photos of Jupiter when I noticed a little animal icon at the top of my photo. I assumed it was Apple's way of tagging a specific animal to make it easier to find photos of it, so I tapped the button and glanced at the settings. I was intrigued because it listed Jupiter as a Snowshoe cat. I chuckled to myself, "Oh, Apple and your stupid image scanning... you're so stupid. She's a Siamese mix or something, not a snowshoe... whatever that is."

Then I did a quick search and I realized Apple wasn't the idiot, I was.

I'm not the most versed in cat breeds, but I feel like I can hold my own in a conversation. With that being said, I'd never heard of a snowshoe cat before, but it only took a couple of pictures to see the resemblance.

So, what is a snowshoe cat? Well, it's a rare Siamese mix formerly known as a Silver Lace. Wikipedia states, "the Snowshoe is a short-haired bicolor colourpoint breed" which is fancy talk for it has two colors that transition from light to dark across the cat's body. It was given the name snowshoe, because the cats have little white paws.

The breed is rare, because it’s difficult to get the right markings and patterns (due to a reliance on recessive genes) to conform to the breed standards. Even Jupiter, who would be considered a "pet snowshoe" wouldn't meet the criteria, because she has too much white on her back legs.

So, my little gutter kitty is a rare snowshoe cat, how cool is that?