Calico cat Morocco. Photo by Valley Girl. Calico cat Essouira wharf , a photo by valleygirl_tka on Flickr. This is a Moroccan cat. It is notable that the cat looks well fed and healthy. I think this cat is semi-domesticated; the kind of relationship that cats had with their human companions in America some 300 and more years ago. I like the photo because the tortoiseshell colours of orange and black fur (in this case diluted black turned to grey) are somewhat reflected in the ground colors and the grey paving slabs. The dilution of the black seems to be more apparent on the flanks than on the top of the back. "Calico" is an American term for tortoiseshell and white, which is used in the English cat fancy. The tortoiseshell element is an intermingling of orange and black fur (or in this case dilute black by the presence of the recessive d gene). Sometimes the whole coat can be diluted too. This page shows a nice dilute calico cat . The O gene (orange) turns the bla