“Although couched in science, the study originally started off as a passion project for Professor Sasaki.
He had retired from his university post, but as a cat lover said he wanted to continue working to uncover the orange cat gene in the hope it could “contribute to the overcoming of cat diseases”.
He and his team raised 10.6m yen (ÂŁ55,109) via crowdfunding for the research from thousands of fellow cat lovers across Japan and the world.
One contributor wrote: “We are siblings in the first and third grades of elementary school. We donated with our pocket money. Use it for research on calico cats.”
Oh, my cat-loving heart 
My cat is an Orange Female, a rarity for sure!
Like many other Orange Females she’s smaller than your average cat.
Ginger Males are usually larger than the average.
How Beautiful! 15151515
Thanks! He’s an old man. About 14 or 15.
That’s funny 
. You’ll be ok Ginger !