Is there any such thing as a "tortietude"...

[DrKym]

Thanks so much Jenn! and yes Miss Lexie is a very good Hooman trainer ...hell she has me totally trained to her each whim.....even to the volume of the TV....but don't tell Donna, she keeps laughing at me!

[Catlady711]

Torti-tude is totally real!!!



I'm fortunate, Sassy is a sweet little bugger for the most part and loves people. However if you squirt her for being on the counter she'll lay down her ears, swat at you and turn her butt as if to say 'ok squirt me here', then she jumps down only to go right back up there 1 minute later, this goes on all day.

Sabrina has a bit more of the torti-tude, she prefers my hubby, but does like other people when she wants to, and can get fairly ornery if she doesn't want to be picked up, she's more flighty of the 3 sibs.

However it isn't always confined to just the torti coloring, Josh (brother to my two torties) is a little spitfire and heck to handle at times, he's a torti in personality if not color anyways. lol

My mom owns a torti, and she's ALL Torti-tude, complete with hissing and biting if she doesn't get her way, but she does get very attatched to certain people and gets very lovey with them only.

We have a tortie that lives at our hospital and she musta just got the coloring because she's the most obnoxiously affectionate cat you've ever seen!! She gives head butts, kisses and when you pick her up she wraps her paws around your neck and literally gives you a hug. She loves everyone and I've never heard her hiss or growl and she's never swatted anyone. I'm thinking her coloring must be an illusion because she acts so sweet.

Based on the hundreds of cats I've dealt with in my 6 1/2 years working at the hospital, if the cat is a tortie we automatically use caution until we decipher it's personality.

Calico's can frequently be of a similar purrrsonality however not to the extent or frequency we see in torties.

[DrKym]

Lexie has taught me without a doubt that my existance is to be her slave....................................

earlier today while cathing up on PT I stopped rocking her.....she bit me till i rocked her again........not saying anything but I will never again decide anything without HER permission!

I am so blessed! thank you again Donna and here I thought it was just a Sphynx thing......silly me

[carole]

Well Nikkita is my first ever tortie girl, i am not sure what kinda of tortie she is,as she is not dark like some of them,but i have to say she is the sweetest and gentle little kitty ever, i believe you all about torties, but my girl does not seem to possess this, lol, i guess she just has to be different.

[Donnaj4962]

Oh yes..... torti-tude is alive and well in our house!

My Sasha is a prime example! She wants petted and held and cuddled.... ON HER TIME! When she is done, she lets you know! And sleeping in? HAH! Not with her in the house! She starts her screaming session between 5 and 6 every morning.... and doesn't stop until her slave (ME!) gets up and turns on the water int he bathroom sink. Never mind that there is a perfectly fine petmate water fountain downstairs! Only the bathroom sink water will do for her highness! But I love her and wouldn't have it any other way!

Here are a few pictures of the Princess!


I am NOT looking at you with that silly flashy thing until you change my litter box!


WHAAAAT? I am trying to take a nap here!


Ohhhh, you are going to let everyone see how gorgeous I am? Why didn't you say so? You may take my picture now.

[Anikaca77]

Here are my torties.

Ashley is 3 yrs old and Fiona is 4 months old. Ashley has the tort attitude going but Fiona so far is very loving and wants attention although she's not coming to her name or listening so she is being just like Ashley in that regards.

[kb2yjx]

The very first cat I adopted(way back in 1988), was a WHITE TORTIE. Miss BooBoo Kitty quickly taught me what tortitude was all about!!! For 16 yrs, she was my BEST friend. Now, Hayley, a black tortie, is at our house. She is my husband's best friend, and I am despised!!! Then to round things out, there is Nimet, a lovely calico. We once participated in a study about cats and their colours. It was NO suprise to find out that the ORANGE cat is the MOST sensitive....

[DJFyrewolf36]

My MIL is now caring for Pandora, the only tortie Ive had the pleasure/displeasure (depending on the day ) of being around for an extended period of time. To give you an idea of her tortitude her nickname is micro-psyco. She lives up to her name in SPADES! Unfortuneatly, she did not get along well with my other kitties and my MILs kitties seem to be tolerant of her swatting, hissy moments.

Tortitude is very very very real! Although I bet you are finding that out

Give that cute tortie of yours a hug for me, if she allows it that is!

[rosethecopycat]

My Siamese Tortie girl, Bella has no Tortitude at all!

Unless you count the fact that she is easily insulted, and can hold a grudge.

[rbrowne222]

I'm almost 50 and have had cats all my life. I'm a total "cat person." I thought that I knew all there is to know about cats. Then I got hoodwinked into adopting this pitiful little tortie. Best thing that ever happened to me!! What a lesson in humility! She owns the house, and I live to serve her! She loves me fiercely -- she even jumped on the one other cat in the world that she tolerates because she thought the other cat was trying to hurt me. But she does hold a grudge. Several months ago, I accidentally stepped on her paw while I was filling her food dish. She put me on her poop-list for weeks! She still runs when she hears me get the container out to fill her dish again. I don't think that a tortie should be someone's first cat. But she was a God-send to me. I needed fierce love and laughter and puzzlement -- and it all came in a little black and orange package. She was a foundling - skinny and burned paws from the pavement of the back road she was found on. She was past pitiful...so I searched for a name for her to grow into. I found it online: Sonsy. It's a Scottish world for buxom and healthy. She's still kinda small, but her tortitude is "sonsy" enough to carry her.

[GILL]

YESTortitude is real. We have almost every color andhair length and the TOTIE'S are thier own breed. It seems that the darker the colors the more the attitude. Penny is the talk to the paw girl, Boots is "yo can pet when I want you too, Precious is I will sit on your shoulder when I want to and you WILL PET, Sweety "don't come near me", and Dobi " stop I'm here too be petted - now"
When ET was with us she was the pinical of Tortitude and she was big enough too enforce it.
If I sit to watch TV Demetri, MIts or Egypt will come up for some loving. But when Prcious comes evryone must go or get growled at and/or get wacked.

[smokey the elder]

In the Cat dictionary next to the word "tortietude" one might find a picture of Bosun! She can be a b.... at times...well, most of the time!

[slave2kitty]

OOOOOOOHHHH yes, there sure is... the stories I could tell you about kitty! :/. On the other hand we have found owning her very rewarding and love her to bits.

What I'm currently freaking out a little bit about is our first baby (human baby!) is due in a couple of weeks and I DON'T think kitty is going to take it well at all. She had been acting uber clingy and bipolar since I got pregnant, and aggressively destroys pretty much every new baby item/box she can get her claws onto. She will keep us awake all night if we don't let her sleep in bed with us, but we can't have her in our room once baby is born for safety reasons, and I really don't want to lock her outside in the middle of winter. She is like our baby- as soon as my partner or I get home she needs food, cuddle, toys, then more cuddles, more food, then bed, in that EXACT order or there will be hell to pay, she will ONLY eat food in our room, and ONLY drink water out of a human cup you fill in front of her etc etc. I'm actually really scared she is going to try to hurt or smother our child when it is born or just pull out her ultimate punishment and run away for weeks and get adopted by some suckers several kms away (this happens a few times a year).

Help! Any suggestions for how to avoid the inevitable catpocalypse?

[Vik121]

Just want to add, my tortie Melody has exhibited the classic symptoms of tortietude since I got her at the age of four months! However, times it by TEN an that's my Melody... I call it "Melytude"!