Now I'm sure you've all seen fan art where cats get pinks and purples and green colors and stars on their forehead or chest or hind legs or...
Hold it. How old are these artists? Now don't get me wrong most of them are great artists and skilled and intelligent, but for some reason put these weird little things in art meant to be taken seriously.
How would the leader go about getting a star tattooed on his or her forehead? Did StarClan do it? Were they born with it? Did they just decide hey imma paint a shape in my head to show I'm the big boss 'round here? How do they even know the common star shape? For all cats know, stars are tiny little balls of light floating high above the trees.
I mean if you want an oddly colored cat find a believable reason. Maybe you're cat is a circus cat or trained to entertain kids and their human dyes their fur, or maybe your cat has iron poisoning, (or is it copper?) that cause light colored cats to develop a green tint, but no, do not write about your character giving birth to a neon pink kitten.
And why in the name of jiggles do they use little star shapes to indicate the number of lives left? Doesn't it seem like that would be a bit of a dumb move?
And why the hearts and squares and human-ish patterns? I mean I get sometimes cats have random heart shaped patches, but then again, they probably don't know that's a common shape for the heart! They've probably seen the heart as they've eaten their prey. I highly doubt a cat is going to be born with stars or diamond shapes on them, either.
And why why why don't people draw the cats flipping whiskers? Whiskers are a very important body part. I mean anime and chibby style cats can be excused because it's be hard to tell, but realistic cats need whiskers. Seriously. Minor complaint but in real life they'd literally get stuck in random things, run into things, loose prey...
Wow.
And on that note, these people who have the anatomy all wrong? More pointed towards visual artists instead of the authors, but it goes both ways. Even the Erin's have some screwed up physiological crap. As in, kittens are born with blue eyes, so if every cat was named after their eye color then every other cat would be Bluekit. And no miss, kittens are not up and walking in three days. Their eyes aren't even opened for the first week and they won't hear for like two! And even then they won't be running until they're like 4 weeks old AND kittens have been known to nurse for 3 or 4 months. They don't stop just because they can chew meat.
And still on this, why don't the cats in the cannon world ever give birth to more than four kittens at a time?
*"The world's largest litter of domestic cats were born on the 7 August 1970 when a Burmese/Siamese cat gave birth to 19 kittens, four of which were stillborn."
And it actually seems fairly uncommon for a single kit to be born in average sized cats. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but of the dozens of strays my family has taken in, fostered and rehomed who had kittens, not a single one had less than four.) As far as we know, a ton of cats were born in single litters, including Graystripe, Snowkit, Sandstorm, Breezepelt, Olivenose and Darkstripe. Now I'm not saying they're an only child, because most of them have siblings from other litters, but not the same litter.
And while we're at it, has anyone else noticed that dew claws have not been mentioned? (Again, correct me if I'm wrong,) but most cats have dew claws on their hind legs to help with jumping and I believe climbing, but it seems the Erin's have ignored them.
Speaking of a specialized skill, Riverclan cats eat a diet of mostly fish, correct? Well, a real cat would not survive this. Why? Well it's listed as one of the top 3 feline allergies, fish does not support vitamin K synthesis which is necessary for proper health, and contains Domoic, a neurotoxin which can cause severe damage to a cats' kidneys and, in a smaller concern, cats usually have a hard time breaking up the bones because their jaws do not move sideways. So how did Crookedstar fair with eating? Was he abnormally skinny from being unable to chew or hold as much food in his mouth? I don't recall many, if any, choking deaths either.
*according to Guiness World Records.
** and to Fanfic-to-a-T, yiu don't ever have to defend yourself. If you can't get ahold of a certain book, then big deal. I seriously doubt everyone else has read every single book, manga, and novella that has ever come out.