Hey Pam! and anyone w/ ginger kitty experience......

[Gina]

My youngest is a ginger and white tabby. You told us you have a ginger, on the "q" about weird tastes....well, you said that if he knows you have yogurt he won't give up, meowing constantly. Well, I have 7 critters , and Rufus the baby is the same. He's more persistant, and never shuts up giving out! He really does go on. The others do let there presence be known but not like he does! My "q" is this: is this a particularly ginger cat trait? Yours does it, mine does it, .... am I talking out of my hat? Can anyone add to this/ (please tell me I'm onto something, and not talking through my hat )!!

[4 feline house]

Of all the cats I have owned and fostered, only one has been orange (which is what we call them across the pond), but he was also pretty persistent and mouthy when he wanted something, whether it was one of his treats (he was the olive eater I mentioned in a previous post), wanted past a closed door, or even wanted in my lap when I was busy doing other things that prevented giving him attention. He would even resort to tearing through the house if he felt I was ignoring him, because he knew that drove me crazy and I would eventually give in to what he wanted if he started on one of his tears! So maybe it is a ginger/orange trait.

[Pam]

Hi Gina and other orange tabbie lovers! My orange Tabby, Trevor, (aka Mr. Orange Man) is definitely very insistent in getting his point across in other areas too. If I should close a door and he wants to be on the other side of that door he will scratch and scratch and meow and meow until you just have to open it for him. My other cat, Andy, will give up after a couple of minutes but not Trevor! He will keep it up until he gets a human to give in to him! My husband says he has me programmed, although I have seen him open the door for him many times too! He will not be ignored! He also loves to be brushed. He will occasionally go to where I keep his brush and meow and meow. He really gets into the whole brushing thing. If I should open that drawer to get something else out he is right there thinking that it's "brushy time" and then the non-stop meowing and rubbing up against me starts! These are his main personality quirks....the yogurt, closed doors and brushing. He definitely makes his desires known and I am there to fulfill all of his wishes!

[4 feline house]

Spencer-Don't want to dwell on anything really delicate, but my orange tabby (Toot) was neutered as a kitten, but when he was about 5 he persistently "mated" with some in-season fosters I had! I thought maybe he was "tetched in the head" so, even tho he's gone now, I'm glad to hear he was probably normal!

I had once made the observation that I had never known of an orange girl, did the research, and discovered a figure close to your 60%. They went on and on about how orange was not really orange, it was the absence of black - I'm pretty smart, but my eyes starting crossing by then and my quest to learn cat genetics was very short-lived!

[gini]

Hi,

I was adopted by an orange tabby about a year and a half ago. My neighbor, the owner
of an orange tabby for over 20 years, says that orange cats have an "attitude". Well,
Mr. Rascal showed up with just that attitude.
You had to admire him as he announced to all of the females in the neighborhood that he was visiting again. However, it was always
2:30 - 3:00 AM. It was clear he had no home and was in the market for one, and he decided that I would do. We made a little
trip to the vets and he has forgiven me.
He still holds his tail up just as high as
always. Talk - he never shuts up - but he
has so many vocal sounds that it is just fun
to figure out what he is trying to say.
Actually he is a very good communicator because it doesn't take too long to figure out what he wants. He loves to be combed
and brushed and he drools all over the place.
Does anyone else have this problem with orange tabbies? All I know is that I am
just nuts about him and very happy he chose
to live with me.



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[Helen]

Hi to all you ginger freaks. I've always had a soft spot for ginger boys, but I think this came partly from my ancient grandmother, long dead now, who came from an old farming family in the north of England. They naturally always had cats, needed them for rodent control, and her attitude was "we try to only ever have gingers, they're simply the best cats!" She was quite convinced of this. She meant in terms of catching mice, health, and generally being trouble-free in most ways. I think as well it came down to the fact that the majority of gingers do seem to be boys, as in those far-off days, neutering was uncommon, and they didn't want hoards of kittens around. I've been fortunate to have had one ginger gentleman, Oliver, who was a complete star - but of course, so is my lovely black and white Sadie!



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Helen

[Gina]

Well gang! No one has contradicted the general consensus! Orange/Gingers are full of verbals, mainly male and very loveable. Don't you guys think it's fun to watch them throwing shapes as they walk around our homes, like they own it, only to bring forth the most wimpish sound ever to come from a male...."meow"?, I half expect a lions roar from Rufus! This "q" has been great fun! Any one new who wants to post, to agree or disagree, jump on in! !

[Keds]

My childhood pet of 18 years was an orange (no white) female cat. I was four years old and wanted an orange cat, and the dandelions were out in May, so she became Dandy. She was beautiful, loyal, brave (she survived getting locked in the neighbor's shed for two weeks), sensitive and a wonderful algebra tutor who would happily sit on my books to relieve my frustration. She lived with one dog and three other people, whom she all ignored until I left for college. She was not very vocal at all, though she would very patiently wait for her one piece of popcorn she was allowed once in a while. When I came home for college, if she happened to be outside, I would call her and soon she would come running from the woods. She always drooled when she was happy; she drooled a lot. I feel like I buried my childhood when she died, and though my husband and I now have a great seven month old black and white kitten, Simon, I miss her. Here's to orange kitties.

[Karen]

Anyone else have a girl orange kitty? Maybe it's just the boys who are so vocal!

[Gina]

Well, a friend of mine has Rufus'(my ginger/white) sister, who is also ginger and white! Their mother is tortie/calico. In Ireland we call the type a tortie! Correct me, but calico ie tri colour, I think is the same thing. Anyhow, getting back to Rufus' sister: she's a piggy! she's persistant about food, not as vocal as Rufus but gets her point accross,and she drools, just like him! She sleeps more, and at 15wks old, she certainly sleeps more than him! She's all I got to go by !

[Sia2]

Originally posted by Karen:
Anyone else have a girl orange kitty? Maybe it's just the boys who are so vocal!

I have three kitties, with my youngest being a little orange female, Callie. Someone had thrown her out of a truck and my boyfriend just happened to be following behind the car. He pulled over and found the most precious completely orange tabby kitten I had ever seen. So, of course, we kept her and now she's almost full grown at nine months. She is the loudest, whiniest, most persistent cat I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. She cries to have the bathroom sink on, she cries for your straw, she cries if her food dish isn't completely full, and she cries if she any bedroom door is closed. My mother has a siamese who is pretty vocal, but Callie has him beat. My other two are pretty quiet (two littermates, a black female, Shadow, and a gray male, Whisper), so maybe it's an orange cat thing. : P

[andi666]

The love of my life,Dio, was a big orange Tabby.(We lost him to cancer two years ago) He was the one to turn my husband in to a cat lover. Dio was eveyone's buddy,personality plus!He could always get his point across,through actions and through "words" he could talk your ear off.Boy, if he didn't like you he would let you know. We had a friend of my husband's stay with us one summer. The first night he was with us Dio peed in his suitcase. The second night He peed on his head while he was sleeping. We never figured out why Dio didn't like our friend, but we were lucky he could laugh it off.
I love the two kitties we share our home with, but Dio was "THE ONE"

[4 feline house]

Following up on Gina's tortie/calico "side thread" - in most of the books I've referred to, it says that most cat fancy clubs consider the tortoiseshell to be only black and orange, and consider a calico to be black, orange, and white. In one book I read it went further to say that in reality (and this was a book on genetics) a calico is nothing but a tortoiseshell and white, and after informally studying (I've had two calicos and a tortoishell point-the most unusually colored cat I've ever seen- in the past) I think that's true, and all the calicos I've seen have the typical "and white" pattern. Anyway, for what it's worth...

[Gina]

OmG! LOL! they stories here are so funny! Andi, re: peeing ing the suitcase, ands on the guys head! LOL! I can imagine your reaction when he told you LOL!

4 feline house: I just wasn't sure, thanks for clearing it up, fair Play! You know what they say? "Everyday's a school day!"

Anyhow, Rufus' mom is the "w/white" colour

She's just georgeous!...Gina!

[daisy]

Back in 1993, we adopted a tortoiseshell-and-tabby stray whom we named Cherry. She gave birth to four kittens, all females, and two of them were orange, which we named Ginger and Honey (one of the remaining cats was colored like her mother, the other one was beige). Among the kittens, it's the orange cats, Ginger and Honey, that were the most vocal. So I guess being vocal is an orange cat thing, regardless of gender! I myself was not aware that 60% of orange cats are male until my vet pointed that fact out to me last weekend. Anywho, this message thread has been really informative! And I love the stories! Give your ginger cats a kiss on the forehead for me!