"Tortitude" Is Real, And Other Fun Facts About Tortoiseshell Cats
Ready for some fast feline facts about Tortoiseshell Cats? These notoriously feisty felines are surrounded by some pretty cool facts - and fiction - from rare genetics to a pretty metal story involving the blood of a mythical goddess. Man, Torties are great.
Tortoiseshell Cats Are Not Actually a Breed of Cat
Tortoiseshell actually refers to the cat’s coat color and fur pattern. Affectionately shortened to “Torties,” Tortoiseshell cats are named for their distinctive multicolored coats featuring a constellation of black, brown, amber, red, cinnamon and chocolate – and very little or no white markings.
Often confused with calico cats, who are predominately white, orange and black, the Tortoiseshell pattern can be seen in Persians, Cornish Rex, and the Japanese Bobtail - just a few of the many breeds that can produce a tortoiseshell coat, both long and short-haired.
Some variations of the tortoiseshell include "dilution," which results in softer, muted greys and creams instead of red and black. There is also the "Torbie" pattern, which is a tortoiseshell cat with tabby stripes.
Torties are Full of “Tortitude."
If you are the servant – er, owner – of a multicolored kitty like a calico or tortoiseshell, you might already know what “tortitude” is. But for those who aren’t aware, there is a bit of a myth surrounding our multicolored feline friends. “Tortitude” is often affectionately applied to a cat with a tortoiseshell or calico coat that also happens to have a bit more, well, cattitude.
Torties are known for being a bit more challenging, strong-willed, and can be possessive of their human. Other words used to describe torties are “fiercely independent, feisty and unpredictable,” according to Ingrid King, author of the Conscious Cat.
If your tortie has a bit of ‘tude, don’t worry – you’re not crazy for thinking it! According to a study from veterinarians at the University of California, cats with calico and tortoiseshell coats tend to challenge their humans more often than other less flashy felines.
Looking for a way to tame your cat's tortitude? Be sure to provide your kitty with plenty of indoor enrichment, like food puzzles or catnip kicker toys as an outlet for all that pent up 'tude!
Torties are almost always female.
The color of a cat’s fur is inherited from its parents, much like our human hair color. Because the genes responsible for orange and black fur color in cats are carried on the X chromosome, torties (and other multicolored kitties) are typically born female. This fun feline genetic detail also applies to calico cats!
About 1 in 3,000 Torties are male
Because each color is carried on a different X chromosome, a cat needs two X chromosomes to be born with a calico or tortoiseshell pattern, which means they will almost always be born female. However, due to a rare genetic mutation that results in an XXY genotype, a male tortie may be born. But that’s a 1 in 3,000 occurrence – a 0.3% chance!
Torties Are Mythical
Torties - and calicos, too - are often the focus of folklore and legend. In the United States, they’re referred to as “money cats," being that male torties and calicos are so rare. In Scotland and Ireland, it’s seen as good luck when a male tortoiseshell comes into your home.
Japanese fisherman believed that bringing a tortie onto their boat would protect them from storms and ghosts.
Even the Khmers of Southeast Asia even developed an explanation as to the origins of a tortie: they came from “the blood of a young goddess born of a lotus flower during a magical ritual”.
Do you have a Tortie at home? Now you can get their photo printed on any custom item, like a mug or blanket! Click here for more details.
This article has explained the last 9 years. Luna, or as we fittingly call her “Loon” (short for Lunatic), is clearly a tortie through and through.
- Cries if I pick her up and it’s not in a way that is convenient for her i.e. to look out the window.
- Talks constantly if she feels we’re failing at something – water bowl needs refreshing, there is insufficient food, she needs “toy-time” or something is in her way.
- She can be fast asleep but if we’re talking in another room without her she comes dashing up / down the stairs to be part of it.
- If she has had sufficient strokes she will nip my hand to tell me “enough human”.
- She will never sit on our laps, she has to stand proudly like a lion surveying the Savannah.
- Being an indoor cat, she pre-poop cries, she’s telling us she is uncomfortable and doesn’t like it. Some might say “use the litter tray” but that can only happen after a good pre-poop moan.
- She protest pees. Not often but if we have done something wholly unacceptable we find out e.g. I had to go travelling on work for a week, upon my return having emptied my suitcase and left it in the hall open, she pees in it. Likewise following a a week of not being home much she peed on paperwork on my desk. Yesterday in fact, she hates the hoover but it has to be done and we move her upstairs / downstairs away from it. Finished hoovering, sat down to eat dinner, she peed on the door mat right in front of us… On all of these occasions she had nice fresh litter available for use but chose to demonstrate her disappointment in us.
While I would quite like the protest pees to stop I wouldn’t change the little hooligan, after all this is the cat that once killed and dragged home a rabbit the same size as her… she has tortitude in spades.
I have a Tortie named Amara. I got her when she was a kitten from the humane society. She is now 12-years-old and she definitely has tortitude. She is very loving, but gets upset when my other cat (who is only 3-years-old) comes to cuddle with us and will beat him up and she will leave me, because I let him come and bug us (lol). She loves belly rubs, but when she is tired of being petted, she will lightly bite my hand. She has so much sass and I love her all the more for it.
Maya, a torbie, arrived at 8 wks as an orphan kitten from humane society and from the beginning she exerted her likes (food) and dislikes (‘pawdicures, car rides to the vet for her monthly pawdicure. At 8 yrs old, she’s feisty, rules the house, has taken the habit of the 3rd consequence a.m. feeding of demanding that I return to her food dish and pat her during her eating. Definitely talkative with a range of tones, some quite insistent. I believe she’s a 1-person cat and completely territorial. She snuggles & cuddles at her own pleasure and won’t accept being picked up unless she’s demanded to nurse on my right shoulder armpit and ONLY if the fabric is pure cotton (as it was the first night she arrived home). She likes to come to whichever room I’m in and always greets me at the front door when I return home. I love her ‘tortitude’. When I did a house swap with some Brits last year, they described her as ‘delightful’ and definitely showing what and when she wanted something.
I had a Torty named Tooty and I got her when she was 2 week old. I her eyes were not even open. I bottle fed her and she never sucked the bottle. I would have to squeeze it in her mouth. I put her in a cloth foam cat square beside me in my bed. She would wake up in the middle of the night and bite my fingers to let me know she was hungry.
I was so crazy about my new baby because she was a Torty and I had never bottle fed a cat before. She was so full of Tortitude that she would paw at me if I would go by her while she was drinking water. She would always fuss at me if I talked to her to much. I think she got a lot of it from me because I lived with my mothers and I would not let the other cats come in our room. She never got along with any of the while I was around but I would catch her playing with them late nights. Especially the kitten!
When she was around 5 years old she got out and was gone for 3 days and when she got back her head was tilted to the side. My mother and I thought she had a stroke. I took her to the vet and he said she didn’t have a stroke. He could not tell me what it was but gave me antibiotics for her and said that she would be fine in a few weeks. He was right! She lived for another 8 yrs. This past November she started looking a bit stressed. I could always tell by her eyes. I took her back to the vet and he gave her antibiotics again. She got a lil better but not completely. I was told to get her some cbd and I contacted Holistapet and got some. I read all about it in hopes that it would help her appetite. I would have to coax her to eat all the time. I worried about her and would stay with her or call for her constantly. She was staying under the bed and by herself all the time except when I would have to literally go get her and put her with me or just keep calling and calling her. The day I got the cbd I gave her the dosage I was told to give her and after about 2 hrs she was totally messed up as In walking around bumping into everything. I got her and put her in my bed and she just went limp!!! I was scared and so worried!!!!! It was late night and she started to throw up and I would try to help her and then I think she just chocked on her vomit and slowly I saw her eyes go grey. I knew the sheI was gone !!!! She passed in my arms. I was the1st thing she saw in this world and the last.. I called Holistapet and they told me that a animal cannot overdose on the cbd. I had given it to her before and it didn’t hurt her. I just feel it was her time and I truly think that she had something neurological wrong with her. I’ll never know??? But I do know that I loved her and now I miss her sooooooooo much
I have been so so sad and had to go to the doctor for depression and miss her so much❣️❣️❣️I am doing better but still there is such a void that it’s hard to get use to not having her. She was with me for a little over 14 yrs. Even when I went out to do things and visit others. All I thought about was going back to her. We live in the country and our place will always be in our family so I buried her on the side of the house where I will put beautiful flowers 💐 when spring time comes. I have a painting of her that I did at a paint your pet gig that my DIL got me for Mother’s Day last year and it’s over my bed. I can’t take her pics off of my FB and I can’t stop sleeping with her blankets. I’m hoping that I can find another Torty with all that Tortitude just like her. I don’t think it’s time yet but I have been looking! Pray that I can find one.🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 Just telling you my story of my 1st Torty. I called her my Nu Nu!!!
We brought home a beautiful slender Calico from our very good
animal shelter. She is delightful. She chose my wife as her person and me as a possible backup. Gentle and sweetshe does paw play with claws out, but with the gentleness of a friend so there is no pain inflicted. She also bites the same way. When my wife leaves the house she raises her voice in a near howl whic she stops if told to by my voice or a tapping on ny thy or a piece of furniture. I am not a cat person, but I love Justine and wish she took to me in her puppy like devotion as she has to my wife.
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