The Green Cat
This attached image shows the famous green cat of
Denmark. Researchers at Copenhagen have done extensive
research to determine the cause but are yet to find a
definitive conclusion.
It has been speculated that the kitten may have
consumed
water which was contaminated by copper piping. Several
blonde women have reported suddenly developing green
hair overnight under similar circumstances.
My barber once told me that he had mistakenly caused
customers hair turn green after exposure to certain
chemicals during coloring process. He tells me this
will only occur with blonde as green is a phase within
the color process. Black hair will turn blue, while
red and brown will change sometimes to a purple
shade.
The last I heard the green cat was alive and well and
being exhibited around Sweden.
Ben Willis
"In 1995, a green kitten "Miss Greeny" was born in north-west Denmark.
Mrs Pia Bischoff found the green kitten near a hay loft. Its fur and
even its claws were green and the discovery created a sensation among
zoological experts in the country and geneticists hoping the colour was
due to a genetic mutation. Mrs Bischoff, whose 5 year old daughter
adopted the kitten, said she had tried to wash out the colour without
success. A vet who examined the cat said it was perfectly healthy but
confirmed that it had a copper patina, apparently present since birth,
from the tip of its fur to the hair follicles.
There was a similar human case in a southern Swedish town in which the
hair of several blonde women turned green due to the amount of copper
present in corroded water pipes.The green colouration did in fact turn
out to be due to the high copper content in water in the area - this
had caused a verdigris effect on the kitten's grey fur. Such high
levels of copper are often toxic.
The kitten and her 5 year old owner became celebrities for a while, but
the green colour vanished as the kitten moulted her coat and new fur
grew through; the new fur was unaffected by copper because the kitten
was no longer drinking copper-rich water. "
After a brief period of fame, the green grew out as the cat moulted and
the green kitten grew up into a grey cat. It was reported in several
cat magazines and the Fortean Times at the time.
Sarah Hartwell, Messy Beast Cat Resource Archive
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