My husband and I invited Cousteau into our lives about a year ago after our ginger girl Lali went missing in the mountain area next to our house one night (she was a stray and it was impossible to restrict her to the indoors). The loss was so big, we decided to get an indoor cat as a playmate for our other cat, hence Cousteau (a cream point Birman) joined our family to become 4 again. Cousteau's light red/cream patches was a soft reminder of our beloved ginger cat.
However, Cousteau was not going to be the obedient indoor cat... He loves the mountain area and the outdoors and runs for any door/window being opened. To make up for being in the house during the day while we are at work, we take him and his older "brother" for a walk in the mountain every afternoon, walking 2 cats as others would walk their dogs!
Cousteau loves "helping" us in any gardening chore and it brings him enormous joy to walk in the red mud outside and then to leave big paw prints all over the house! He thinks we are the most stringent parents when we bring him inside at dusk every day - suppose these light red patches in his coat are actually Lali's free spirit showing through…