The amazing story of the offspring of a dog and a cat circulates on the Internet from time to time. But what is the truth?
Although the dog-cat hybrid, “Kuppy,” is an Internet sensation, the history of such crossings begins in the analog era: In December 1970, a gentleman named Roy Tutt claimed to have mated a dog and a cat, thus creating hybrid offspring. For both types with type characteristics. Of course, all this did not escape media attention – according to contemporary news, these animals had dog heads, cat fur, and mustaches. Tutt, who was a pet store owner and also a bookie, said he had been trying this crossbreeding for a decade, feeding the animals a mixture of cat and dog food. These hybrid animals were described as small, black and thin, but it is clear that they are just dogs according to the pictures.
Although crossbreeding between dogs and cats (even with the help of a large dose of whiskey poured into a dog's bowl) is scientifically impossible, such hybrids dazzle the public from time to time – as early as 1937, a story appeared about a cat in a Miami alley The birth of dogs allegedly spread.
Tut eventually admitted to the fraud, but has so far made a significant financial profit from the interviews and photos sold. The fact that true hybrids, such as mules and ligers, exist of course, but only between closely related species with compatible DNA sequences, may also have played a role. However, the genetic makeup and reproductive behavior of dogs and cats are very different, so crossing them is biologically impossible. Other viable hybrids, such as the narluga (narwhal and beluga whale) and the grizzly bear (grizzly and polar bear), occur naturally or through human intervention, but are – again – genetically compatible.
Although there is no such thing as a dog-cat hybrid, some breeds can “combine” the expectations of dogs and cats for those who love both dogs and cats: cat breeds include the Maine Coon and Ragdoll, and dog breeds include the Basenji and Shiba Inu that exhibit traits of opposite species.
Sometimes, this resemblance to another species can be very significant – this is how the Vietnamese cat-like dog named Dúi became an Internet sensation, and which some channels sometimes try to present as a real dog-cat hybrid, “kuppy”. Dúi, by the way, is quite a dog: a mix of the original Vietnamese Hmong breed and a short-legged dog, which may have become more cat-like due to some genetic mutation.
In other words, Kobe can exist in the fantasy world, but genetic mass unfortunately stands in the way of that here, in our drunken little reality. And those who mind that can at least console themselves with dog-like cats or cat-like dogs.
(source: The mysterious atlas, Bored panda, Catcoverpicture: Go mo pic mo)
