Question:
A dog owner in my neighborhood says that his dog is a cross between a fox and a border collie. Is that even possible? Likewise, my sister believes her cat is part raccoon. Is that possible?
C.T., Falls Church, Va Dec 13, 2010
Answer:
The genetic barrier between dogs and foxes prevents crossbreeding. So any dog that seems foxlike cannot have any fox ancestry.
Foxes are distant cousins of dogs; but close cousins like wolves and coyotes will crossbreed with each other and with dogs. The offspring are fertile.
The ringlike marks on some cats' tails look raccoonlike, but raccoons cannot interbreed with cats. Occasionally in the news, there are mistaken reports of cats thought to be part rabbit because they hop around like rabbits, which is most likely due to a spinal cord abnormality most common in tailless Manx cats.
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