Watermark: Orange Cats

Friday, 04 November 2005

Orange Cats

[This has been reposted here: Orange Cats | Popular Cats | Facebook Cats with a winnowing of dead links, and a few additions -- including a talking orange cat. See also: Orange Cat Inca[n]tation.]

Everyone knows that orange cats rule. Just ask an orange cat. Or a ginger cat, a marmalade cat, a tangerine cat, a red cat.

But there may be some things you don't know about these kingly cats. For example, did you know that most orange cats are male?

Like humans, cats have one pair of sex chromosomes. These are the ones that make them male or female and they play an essential role in determining a cat’s colour. In females, both sex chromosomes are X making girl kitties XX. Males are XY, the Y making them male. A kitten gets one chromosome from Mom and one from Dad. Moms only have X’s so the variable is given by the Dad, if he gives his X, the kitten is a girl, if he gives his Y, it is a boy.

The gene which makes a cat ginger (orange) is located on the X chromosome. The gene for ginger will override all other colours. Since males have only one X, they either are or aren’t ginger - no halfway about it. Girl cats have two X’s in each cell. As far as the cells are concerned two X’s is one too many, so each cell deactivates one of the X chromosomes in a fairly random fashion . . .

Since males only need to have the orange gene on one chromosome to become ginger, and females have to have it on two, ginger males outnumber females 3 to 1.

And, from the same source, the explanation for why we have so many orange and white cats:

. . . Because white isn’t a colour but the absence of colour. The genes that cause the suppression of colour are stronger than the genes for any colour including the mighty orange. Since white isn’t a colour and is merely hiding the genes for colour, white cats often produce coloured kittens.

orange cat pulling clothes off ironing board

Friends of Fat Orange Felines believes that orange cats have more than their share of cattitude:

cat ti tude (cat' i-tood') n. 1. a state of mind or a feeling of superiority, which is highly annoying and endearing, simultaneously.

I've lived with Spike for twelve years now, and I have to agree. Humans owned by ginger cats tend to form support groups, like the Flickr Orange Cats Group, the Catster Orange Cats Club, or the previously mentioned Friends of Fat Orange Felines.

We also seek out badges of our servitude, which several businesses are happy to provide. We can decorate our walls with orange cat artworks from Best-Cat-Art.com; we can purchase orange cat mugs and t-shirts from cafepress (there is even an orange-cat t-shirt for dogs); and we can ornament ourselves with orange cat pins and earrings.

Orange cats are oddly inspirational. In addition to more than enough orange cat photographs (Webshots; Acclaim Images; Flickr) we have a handknitted orange cat coin purse (it's really quite charming); an Exceptionally Cute & Soft, Absolutely Adorable, Unbelievably Cuddly Plush orange cat stuffed toy; and a hybridized Angel's Trumpet cultivar named after: Orange Cat.