Aren’t most calicos females? Aren’t most white cats blind or deaf (don’t remember which)? And aren’t many dog and cat breeds bred to do specific tasks? If such oddities exist then I don’t see why it’s so unbelievable for animals to have different relationships to personality and physical biology than humans. I don’t think people should be trying to apply human sociobiology to animals.

[–] Findom_DeLuise@hexbear.net 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Something like 99% of tortoiseshell cats are female, and other the 1% tend to be intersex and/or sterile. Roughly 80% of orange cats are male. The "clingy but a-little-too-adventurous himbo" traits associated with orange cats are pretty common across male cats, while the "little miss attitude" traits associated with torties (and torbies) are very common among all female cats.

That said, my orange girl absolutely fits the orange cat stereotype. She tries to get on top of doors and is surprised when she can't. The dog is so afraid of her that he will refuse to go near the stairs if she is on them. I've had to pull her out from under the dresser and/or night stand because she got stuck. My wife regularly ends up slimed by Churu splash because this cat will grab her wrist and try to steal the entire Churu pouch during treat time with the other cats.

[–] nothx@hexbear.net 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I have a boy black cat that fits the exact description of your orange girl. We joke about him being an orange that baked a little too long.

[–] huf@hexbear.net 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

yeah, and iirc red cats are mostly males, but the rest is just designer breeds of cats stuff, which is just weird as hell to me. why breed cats? they're perfect as they are. normal local shorthair cats are all the same on average. which means they come in the same range of personalities of course, i'm not claiming they're literally all the same.

[–] RyanGosling@hexbear.net 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I’m not saying you’re claiming they’re all the same. I just don’t understand the discourse around animal temperament and human racism when humans have practiced eugenics on animals for status or tasks and fucked up their genetics for eons now

[–] huf@hexbear.net 3 points 2 months ago

because there's never been any real intentional breeding done on default cats. if we've fucked up their genetics, it wasnt because we bred them, but because we killed very aggressive ones and kept the cute kittens. much of the evolution of cats among humans was done not as pets but as barn cats (or similar roles), where they are a half-tame half-wild animal that fucks whoever it wants.

cat coat color clearly has nothing to do with anything. the wild cats from which domestic cats come from are all basically tabbies, and it's not like anyone set out to breed cow-spotted black and white cats. all these coats coexist in feral/rural (the line can be hard to draw, with barn cats and such) cat populations and it's just random variance.