When you somehow get a black kitten, you assume that they’ll remain that colour forever. Why wouldn’t you? Black certainly is a pretty heavy color to try and permeate.
Back in 1997, David Platt bought a black kitten who he named Scrappy. However, little did he know, that one day his dark fur would turn marble-like.
Scrappy’s fur began turning white seven years later, which David thinks is may be down to vitiligo – which is a condition which affects around 1% of humans and is even more or a rarity in cats.
The condition is caused by a lack of melanin and usually causes white patches to appear on the skin.
‘Scrappy was jet black as a kitten,’ explained David, a builder from Yorkshire.
‘But when he was seven, my mum was looking after him and rang me to say a white patch had appeared on his head.
‘We took him to the vet as we thought he might have had a stroke. At that time, the vet couldn’t explain what was causing it.
‘In the next few years, Scrappy began to get more and more white patches, then it slowed down. But in the last three or four years it has started again. More recently, a vet identified that Scrappy could possible have vitiligo.’
It’s not for sure but there is a possibility that Scrappy might one day turn completely white.
Perhaps his extraordinary fur is giving him some kind of power because Scrappy is 19-years-old – which is 92 in human years – and is still as agile as ever.
He may be a senior cat but he’s as joyful and healthy as the next feline.
In fact, his name comes from the fact that he’s always ‘scrapping’ with cats in the neighborhood.
Cats aside, Scrappy’s actually become the global celebrity. Even their postman takes pictures of him, while his Instagram account – Senior Scrappy has in upwards of 96,000 followers who trace his every move.
