Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The author asked Jackson if such a thing exists. Here's his answer:
“I hate generalizing about cat coats or breeds, or anything like that, in terms of assigning a personality to a cat," he told me. "That being said, cats like torties, calicos, and orange tabbies tend to have a much more distinct personality, in my opinion. But I try as hard as I can not to prejudge on the basis of past tortitude experience.”
Galaxy says he has not found tortoiseshell cats to be feistier than average, but he does believe they tend to be “more sensitive to the stimulus around them.”
We all know "colors" can't have characteristics but anyone who has ever had the pleasure of owning a tortie can tell you they are certainly unique little characters... princesses, even. Mine is totally textbook tortie, complaining every chance she gets, especially now that she is old. In her younger days, she was quite the terror. I also have a torbie and she is a character as well, in a different way. Personally I love cats with attitude, isn't that why we own cats in the first place?
I don't buy into it at all. It's like saying black dogs tend to be meaner. I think people tend to pick up on "attitude" from calico cats because they expect the attitude so that's what they zone into. You tend to notice what you expect. Like if you expect the phone to ring during dinner then you don't notice all the night it is silent - you only notice all the nights it rings - which may actually be half or less.
My feeling is that like 98% of Calico cats are female so they have "female" cat attitude vs. male cat attitude. However if you had a Calico and a grey cat with the EXACT some personality that calico would be labeled as snotty cat while the grey female would not be.
Just my opinion on it though.
And I've met plenty of big red and orange tabs that were fabulous so I don't know what he means by "distinct" personality. I kind of take that as a negative word.
Distinct just means clearly different in some way. It's a neutral word. I've often heard people say that orange tabbies are the nicest cats (and our orange tabby has an extra-sweet personality) so I don't know that he meant something negative by that.
And BTW I don't necessarily agree with stereotyping cats by their coloring. I'm just saying I don't think he was saying anything bad about orange tabbies.
I think it's just one of those things that people joke about.
I do happen to have a tortie with a bad attitude but I also used to have one who was a real sweetheart. I have a lot of cats and they're different sizes, shapes, and colors. They have their own individual personalities and I can't say that any one personality trait is due to what breed/color patterns they have.
actually...
in my expeience ive NEVER met an orange tabby at who wasnt just a big mushy "lazy" kitty
and my tortie girl definatly has a different temperment than my black girl...
i dont read "distinct personality" as negative at all...but i definatly have seen "trends" in certain cat colors...
Orange tabbies ive found tend ot be rather mellow overall, with a silly side
Black cats in my experience are sweet and sensitive but tend to be independant and can be down right standoffish with strangers
Torties just have this "diva-ness" about them, not in a bad way, but more in the tendency to like to be into everything your doing (and tell you about it) its certianly not a "bad attitude" more a desire to be involved and front and ceneter...i find myself drawn to torties because they seem to (like meezers) be more into "human" attention...
Ive found solid white cats to generally be quiet and aloof
and Grey/brown tabbies to be "the middle ground"
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
