The Mother Question

So we had two kittens come in last night with our adoption group.
And this morning, when I came into work, 
The two kittens had been moved down to join another cat in his cage. 

All three are orange tabbys. And all are boys.

Not knowing why they'd been moved down,
We kept the kittens in the larger cage with the other kitty. 

And towards the end of my shift I had this family come in.
Large family with like five or six kids. 
-They were moving around so much I really don't know how many there were.

And they wanted to look at the cats.
Specifically the kittens.
So I took them into the adoption room and the mother promptly noticed the larger orange tabby.
Immediately she asked. "Is that the mother?!"

Which....large cat, two small kittens....makes sense to think it would be the mom. But no. 

"No, he's a boy."
"Oh, so is it the Father?"
Another logical explanation for why there was a larger cat but again,
"No, they're not related."

"But they look exactly alike! They should be related!"
"They're the same breed." Was my response. Because really orange tabbies will look alike because they're all orange and striped. It's just the tiny differences in face shape, eyes, fur length, fur pattern that sets them apart. But that doesn't mean because they look similar that they're related.

The mother began to ask me another question, but then one of the daughters came in, saw the kittens and the cat and gasped before asking me. "Is that the mother?!"

Cue me having the exact same conversation I had just thirty seconds before. 

And when I'd reached about the same point in the conversation....
One of the other siblings too came in and asked me pointing to the larger cat. "Is that the mother?!" 

No....no dear children, the large cat isn't the mother since it's a boy and no it isn't the father, he's just in the cage.
But they didn't like that answer, so I finally had to say "he's in there to help the kittens feel protected." because why not, it works well enough. 

So the answer is...
No....he isn't the mother. lol. 

-Sarnic Dirchi