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 | Dr. Marty Becker Soon, small puppies or kittens will be wiggling inside holiday packages, and the world's largest ad hoc chain of pet adoption centers, the Wal-Mart parking lot, will be filled with puppies and kittens of every description.
Some are purebred litters, or litters where the dad stuck around long enough to be identified. But many times the female cat goes catting around or the neighborhood dog 10 houses down (let's call him Tramp) breaks lose and pays his new girlfriend (we'll call her Lady) a romantic visit.
Unfortunately, Tramp's not the only Dog-Juan, as a lot of his neighborhood buddies have paid visits as well.
The result? A female dog or cat can be pregnant by more than one male at the same time.
Dogs and cats produce several eggs per cycle and have litters of offspring. If the female mates with more than one male, some eggs may be fertilized by one father and other eggs by a different one. The sperm from each male are just swimming toward the eggs as fast as they can, and the first one to each egg is the genetic gold medal winner.
Each offspring will then share the genetic characteristics of the parents. So you might have a longhaired and shorthaired cat in the same litter, or a litter of dogs with completely different ears, eye colors or coat coloration.
Even the name we call dogs of mixed heritage has changed. When I was a young boy on the farm in southern Idaho, we called them Heinz 57s or mutts. Now we refer to them as canine cocktails or party pups.
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Dr. Marty Becker is the veterinary contributor to "Good Morning America" and hosts "Top Vets Talk Pets" on healthradionetwork.com. He is also co-author of "Chicken Soup for the Horse Lover's Soul."
(C) 2005 The Record, Bergen County, NJ. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved
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