Orange Cats | Popular Cats | Facebook Cats

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Up there, if you click that (orange, of course) play button, you'll (hopefully? maybe?) get an illustrated audio introduction to this post. Below the cut, an updated version of the original Orange Cats post.

See also: Orange Cat Inca[n]tation

But first, a few other places for you to visit this weekend, if it's too cold, rainy, stormy, wet, hot, humid, smoky, buggy, or whatever, to be outside. If you are owned by an orange cat, or any other cat or critter, you'll almost certainly enjoy:

• The Carnival of the Cats at StrangeRanger 
• On Sunday, the new carnival at The Scratching Post
• Weekend Cat Blogging at Belly Timber
• Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos at Pet & The Bengal Brats at Pet's Garden Blog
• & Friday Ark at Modulator

Now, on to the famous Orange Cats:

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? [The source of this quote is no longer available.]

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.

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.)

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) [It's gone. I should have taken a screenshot.]; an Exceptionally Cute & Soft, Absolutely Adorable, Unbelievably Cuddly Plush orange cat stuffed toy; and a hybridized Angel's Trumpet cultivar named after: Orange Cat.

Spike, like many cats, is quite social. This is why he insisted on joining The Gorgeous Gingers:

. . . even though he already belongs to Catster, and has lots and lots of friends. He hasn't yet been added to Facebook's Catbook:

Catbook By Poolhouse

Catbook allows you to create a profile for your cat, tag your cat in photos, find and interact with cats in your area, and much more! Make your cat a part of your Facebook life - add Catbook today! NEW! Search and browse through over 140,000 Cats!
177,822 users

. . . but I'll give in, eventually.

I always do.

Most of these kitty animations are from Lucy Rand.