Chameleon Puzzles

In these puzzles, there are several kinds of objects, and it's possible to convert objects from one kind or another according to some rules.

Puzzle 1: On a lonely desert island, there are 17 yellow chameleons, 15 green chameleons, and 13 blue chameleons. It's a big island, but occasionally a pair of chameleons meet. If they are the same color, nothing happens, but if they are of differing colors, then both of them, out of politeness, change to the remaining color. If this is the only way that color changes can occur, then is it possible that after an appropriate sequence of meetings, all the chameleons could be the same color?

Puzzle 2: Professor Marvel has invented three wonderful new devices:

• The dogmatizer converts 1 dog into 1 cat and 1 rat, or vice versa;
• The categorizer converts 1 cat into 2 dogs and 1 rat, or vice versa;
• The rationalizer converts 1 rat into 3 dogs and 1 cat, or vice versa;

Professor Marvel has only one cat. Can he use his devices to create

• A) some rats, but no dogs or cats?
• B) some dogs, but no cats or rats?
• C) more cats, but no dogs or rats?

This puzzle appeared in the February 2004 edition of Math Horizons.

I give up, show me the solution.