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A fluffy cream kitten with darker ears and blue eyes sits on a porch beside stacked straw bales forming a small tunnel. 17 / 22

The Straw Bale Tunnel Was Built for Kids, but Tonight It Has a Gatekeeper

AI imagehalloweenragdoll kittenhay bales

Evening has settled in, and the porch lamp casts a warm glow over a stack of straw bales arranged into a little tunnel, the kind kids love to crawl through on a fall night. Just beside the entrance, a fluffy cream kitten sits on the porch boards, her soft coat lit golden by the light. Her ears are tipped with a smoky gray-brown, and her blue eyes gaze off to the side, watchful and calm. Small pumpkins and fallen leaves dot the edges of the porch, and the street beyond is dim and quiet.

Those darker ear tips are the beginning of her colorpoint pattern, seen in breeds like the Ragdoll, Siamese, and Birman. The pattern comes from a temperature-sensitive gene: the enzyme that produces dark pigment works best in cooler areas of the body. That's why the ears, face, paws, and tail, which are slightly cooler than the torso, develop the deepest color. Kittens are born almost entirely pale because it's warm in the womb, and their points darken over the following months. Colorpoint cats can even get a little darker in cooler climates or as they age, so their look keeps evolving over time.

This little one's points are still just a whisper of color. By next Halloween, she'll likely have a much more dramatic mask and tail to show off.

Some costumes come off at the end of the night. Hers is permanent, and it keeps getting better.

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