I currently have a gray cat that would smother you to death with love if she could. She is the friendliest animal I have ever owned.
However, it’s a proven fact Torties are “special”. :lol: It’s called Tortitude.
My mom has two of them and they are endlessly entertaining - and crazy!
She thinks they are awesome and would have a house full of Torties if she could. But they are not for everyone. (I am extremely fond of one of hers though - it is hilarious and insanely cute)
My “Tux” , Maxwell Smart, is a professional pet. He wants to be around “his” humans. Strangers, not so much.
Miss Kitty, OTOH, is the resident rodent control killer machine. If it moves, it’s her’s. And she’s a small (8 lb) tiger. I’ve seen her chase cats out of the yard that were a lot bigger than she is.:eek:
Tuxedo cat: Smartest cat ever and the most devoted. She would follow us on our walks around the neighborhood and the sit on a corner and yell at us if we went to far from home. One time we went to a house across the street to look at some furniture they were selling. She actually came to the house and sat at the door yelling at us because we were in the wrong house. She was by my husband’s side constantly when he was recovering from hip surgeries.
Gray cat (Nieblung - was barn cat but fits the profile perfectly). Loves my husband and I only. Cuddles and drools and would crawl inside of you if she could, then bite your nose and run off for the next 8 hours.
Black cat … big and lazy. I’ve had him for 17 years and I have never, ever, ever seen him run. He can trot really fast if he needs too, but run… never. Sweet and patient and loves to be petted. Vets love him.
I also had a gray tiger and an orange tiger. They were our original cats and our children. Friendly, smart, people oriented, great, great cats.
My experience has been the Orange are the smartest and almost dog like. Black ones are as smart as the orange but more careful. Calico = crazy. Only have had one Siamese mix, all beauty no brains! I loved them all equally!!
I have two brown/black tabbies now that are different as night and day. Mick is stand-offish; she’ll accept petting, but would really rather you wouldn’t. Sassy is a cuddle bug deluxe.
Rascal, the Big Fat Gray Cat, is very sweet and cuddly as well.
I’ve had a number of black cats (owing to my mom’s desire to have ONE black cat that was a lap cat) and they were all different, too. Imp was – well, demonic. Elvis was sweet, but preferred to be outside. Munchies, ironically, has turned out to be the sweet, lazy lap cat.
So no, I don’t think you can tell anything about a cat’s personality by its color.
Chocolate calico-working her inbred crazy side, she has curly hair and a freaky personality, very loyal and smart and peevish… tons of personality, does weird things all the time, wet noodle if she’s comfortable, we call her the Pie Cat. Seemed appropriate. We blame the inbreeding-her mama was a wild barn cat. She’s gorgeous, long haired chocolate brown, orange tabby and white… owl got her tail a few years ago.
Oldest grey tabby-lovie lovie lovie, talks a lot… adopts any baby, meows if you look at her funny. We love to say “Meow” and then touch her with a finger tip to hear Meow back! Purrs like crazy-her name is Motorboat
Tabby with white-particular, lovie, loyal, scared of strangers, has her WTF!!! look perfected, comfort creature, adores dogs and actively nurses off of one of them for some reason.
Tortie with white-half sister to the tabby with white, very freaky and weird, loyal as a little dog to my son and nobody else. sweet, innocent, possessive, wild, tons of personality that nobody else gets to see. love her
Pure white cat-the only male in my bunch, weird, silly, loves to play, spooky of people but lived as a feral fed cat for years, no manners, very sweet and loving.
Tux cat-full sibling to the white cat-very sweet but only to me, lived as a fed feral for a long long time and now is devoted to me but still scared of other people. Mama to the tortie…
Why is there not an option for one with multiple personalities? Haha
I currently have a Tux and he is very smart, but wants to do everything on his own terms. Very friendly (currently curled up next to me), sleeps with you every night, greats you at the door etc but he has an evil side too…one too many pets and you better watch out! (and the number just depends on his mood) And sometimes you just offend him somehow and he MUST eat your arm. This probably wouldn’t be such a big deal if he always wasn’t GIANT (weighs 20 pounds and is not over weight…) and didn’t have huge claws and giant teeth.
Interestingly enough I had an orange tabby male with a similar personality growing up.
Had a female tux and she wasn’t particularly friendly or really into people.
So I must say I am not sure color has a huge impact but basically my current tux is just plain crazy!
Tabbys really stand out for me as being the best, of all the cats I’ve lived with:
Tabby & white male: seriously cuddly and loving, talkative, very gentle, playful, bit of a scaredy cat
Black/smokey male: total clown, high energy (he’s coming up 9mths, so that might change), cuddly when he wants to be, other times he’ll shrink/move away
Tortie female: grumpy, very smart, would bite with little/no warning. We think a huge amount of this was an ongoing health issue causing her pain. But she certainly had attitude
Tabby male: very loving, not particularly smart
Tabby female: very loving, smart & active
Tuxedo female: not very cuddly, I don’t remember her having a lot of personality
Tabby male: loving, smart, involved in everything
I only have a sample size of one:
Female brown tabby DSH who showed up at about 6 months old and is now 4 … she is a SASSY PANTS. Into everything, talks back to you when you tell her no or stop, hollers at you if she wants something (she’s done the big loud insistent mew when there’s a moth on the ceiling she can’t get and would like us to please do something about that, immediately). She’s loving but only to a point, and ONLY with us, though MIL after a week of taking care of her while we were on vacation made some inroads. She has spurts of high energy galloping around the house like a freak, but she’s not particularly agile.
We don’t call her Wicked for nothing. 
I don’t know enough about cat lineage to know, but if anything, color/markings of a coat might have some influence on personality if the coat colors, in domestic short hairs, trace back to any particular breed way back when in the mix.
The cats we call domestic shorthairs are a mix of a couple of breeds. At least at some point back in time they were.
I have never owned a purebred registered breed cat, but having been around some, at friends, cat shows etc, they seem more specific in personality per their breed…they are interesting, very “typey” and some are gorgeous, but I would feel too guilty buying a cat when so many lovely free ones need homes.
http://www.knowyourcat.info/lib/whyblack.htm
above interesting on black cats!
url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_short-haired_cat
“reverting to type” in tabby coat above
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/calico-cats-personality.html
above regarding calico coat traits
[QUOTE=csaper58;7252356]
In the south, often, the people who judge an animal’s temperament/intelligence by it’s color do the same with people and skin color. :([/QUOTE]
Not just in the south. All over the world. Don’t imply it’s just southerners (although I did notice you didn’t specify the south of what!)
I have an orange tabby female, former stray. She is VERY friendly and will lay on you regardless if there is room for her or not. Excellent hunter and tree climber. My step father also has an orange tabby female, and she is very much a one person gal. You can pet her on her own terms, any other time will earn you are growl and a swat.
Do you people who believe a cat’s temperament or personality is related to its color have the same idea about a horses’s or dog’s coat color being related to its personality?
If so, what do you believe is the mechanism of this?
I am surprised by the number of people who base their opinions on what seems a rather limited sample size.
There are actually a number of reasonable theories about the relationship between pigmentation/ color and temperament. Many of them hinge on the fact that the genes/ proteins that control pigmentation are pleiotropic (they have other functions).
For example, redheads (human) actually process things like anesthesia differently (they require more to achieve the same levels) and experience pain differently than people of other hair colors. The studies of “domesticated” arctic foxes showed that traits like white-spotting and color changes accompanied the “tamer” offspring. And with cats, there is always the possibility that it’s really because the black/orange color gene is sex-linked (and since male and female cats are thought to have different personality types – generally).
I have found long haired, buff orange males to be the most laaaaaid back. I’ve had two now, and both of them could be hung upside down by their toes and be purring all the while begging to be further molested.
Brown tabbies… 3… all sweet but reserved.
Black and black/whites personable and clownish.
My orange male is the friendliest cat I’ve ever met - ever.
[QUOTE=baxtersmom;7254493]
There are actually a number of reasonable theories about the relationship between pigmentation/ color and temperament. Many of them hinge on the fact that the genes/ proteins that control pigmentation are pleiotropic (they have other functions).
For example, redheads (human) actually process things like anesthesia differently (they require more to achieve the same levels) and experience pain differently than people of other hair colors. The studies of “domesticated” arctic foxes showed that traits like white-spotting and color changes accompanied the “tamer” offspring. And with cats, there is always the possibility that it’s really because the black/orange color gene is sex-linked (and since male and female cats are thought to have different personality types – generally).[/QUOTE]
I haven’t found male and female cats to have different personality types at all.
I don’t process anesthesia well – is that supposed to provide insight into my personality?
[QUOTE=BrookdaleBay;7254212]
I have an orange tabby female, former stray. She is VERY friendly and will lay on you regardless if there is room for her or not. [/QUOTE]
Sounds like my female Orange tabby, she practically smothers me at times.
My others. Silver tabby super super smart and friendly
Longhair blue colored. Laid back and kinda dingy.
Tuxedo. The oddest of the bunch but still sweet.
Dark/muted orange and white tabby. Just super sweet and loves everyone and every cat.
Little bitty calico. Skittish, very vocal but also very lovey. Almost always only to me though. 
I’ve heard that calicos and torties are talkative…and in my experience (6 years as a vet tech and always having cats around…currently a silver torbie) it’s TRUE!
They have an opinion and love to share it. My girl will hold a conversation w/ me.
I can agree w/ the orange statement. We have two orange barn cats and one is super shy but when he wants some love he is all over me.
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