Ginger Cat Appreciation Day

Do you have an orange kitty? If so, you may want to give Fluffy some catnip, or maybe a new toy, today. It’s Ginger Kitty Appreciation Day! Our lovable feline buddies come in all sorts of colors and patterns, and we think they’re all adorable. However, redheaded kittens definitely have some raving fans! A vet discusses these tiny lions below.

Boys Club

One interesting thing about red cats? The majority of them are boys. This isn’t a coincidence. The gene that produces that striking ginger color is on the X chromosome. Since girls are always XX, that means female kitties need two copies of the ‘ginger gene’ to become redheads. If your ginger cat is a girl, then both of Fluffy’s parents were gingers. If you have a boy ginger, he had at least one ginger parent. His kids could be either gingers or tortoiseshell.

Purrsonality

Kitties are all unique individuals, and they all have their own distinct ‘purrsonalities.’ That said, ginger cats do seem to have some traits in common. Male gingers tend to be chatty, bold, and active. Your little red buddy may yell at you for being late with his dinner, or to tell you to pick him up right meow. Girl gingers, on the other paw, tend to be more gentle and laid-back. They’re also not *quite* as verbose.

Fluffy’s Fashion Sense

Ginger cats can have either long or short hair. Some of them are even curly! There are also several variations in the patterns Fluffy chooses to wear. These include spotted; patched; classic, or swirled, as they are sometimes called; mackerel, or striped; and ticked. It’s also worth noting that all gingers are considered tabbies. However, not all tabbies are gingers.

Famous Gingers

We can’t really discuss ginger kitties without talking about the most famous one of all: Garfield! The beloved ‘Flabby Tabby’ was born back in 1978, in the back room of Mama Leoni’s Italian Kitchen. It didn’t take the (then) tiny orange ball of fur very long to realize that Mondays are terrible, and that lasagna is the best thing ever. The kitten’s rapidly growing appetite for the classic dish almost put the small restaurant out of business! Fortunately, cartoonist Jon Arbuckle adopted the sarcastic feline. The rest is history. Of course, we can’t forget to mention Morris, the cat food spokeskitty (or technically, spokeskitties) that captured millions of hearts back in the 80’s. There’s also Hobbes, the feline half of Calvin and Hobbes. (Hobbes was technically a Bengal tiger, but he was drawn as red, so we’ll still count him.)

Do you have questions about your ginger cat? Contact us, your animal clinic, today!