We don’t usually agree with titles like this, since beauty is subjective, and for every pet owner, their own cat is the most beautiful and most beloved. Still, we’re sharing the story of Pebbles, the cat proclaimed to be the world’s most beautiful, because of the extraordinary pattern on her face — a distinctive feature that made her famous.

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Pebbles is a Ragdoll, a breed known for its elegance. What makes this particular cat truly unique, however, is the chimera pattern visible on her face: it looks as though two different halves were seamlessly joined together. The cover photo is just an illustration featuring a Ragdoll, but the video below shows the real Pebbles.

As we’ve written before, chimerism is a rare genetic mutation that occurs in individuals with more than one set of genetic material. There are what’s known as primary and secondary chimeras. The most common cause of primary chimerism is the fusion of two embryos in the early stages of development. If this fusion happens only partially, the cells may not mix completely — meaning that in one area, only one embryo’s cells are present, while in another, the other embryo’s. Another cause of chimerism is polyspermy, when a single egg is fertilized by two or more sperm cells.

Secondary chimeras, on the other hand, acquire the additional cells not at the very beginning of development, but later — for instance, from a twin or even from the mother, whose cells can pass through the placenta. These processes can lead to the kind of one-of-a-kind markings seen on Pebbles.

Here’s another example of a chimera cat:

While the internet tends to throw around superlatives like “the most beautiful” or “the best,” in Pebbles’s case, “special” or “unique” seem far more fitting. One thing is certain, though — a cat like her is not something you see every day.

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