A mightily beautiful orange Maine Coon

Orange cats seem to feature in films more than other types of domestic cat. Is it because they have good, balanced characters? I am discussing the possibility of a link between coat type and color and character. A big call. A longshot. But possible. I discussed it in another post - click here if it interests you. 

So, we love orange cats. They are undoubtedly one of the more popular cat coat types. And that is one reason why this Maine Coon is so damned attractive. What a combination: the size and presence of the Maine Coon, the world's largest domestic cat breed, and the orange tabby coat (the friendliest cats?)

A mightily beautiful orange Maine Coon. Photo: Pinterest.

I think this sort of domestic cat is the most desirable. You would be hard pressed to adopt a better cat but the best ones to adopt are the unadoptable, elderly, black rescue cats languishing in a shelter somewhere.

A bit about the orange cat

Cat breeders tend to refer to orange as red. The general public refer to orange as ginger and storytellers refer to orange as marmalade! That sounds a bit complicated. And in the early days to confuse matters even more orange cats were referred to as yellow. The geneticist, Roy Robinson, in his book written by him and others named Robinson's Genetics for Breeders and Veterinarians describes the orange gene in the following way: "The recognised symbol for the gene is "O". The action of the "O" gene is to eliminate all melanic pigment (black and brown) from the hair fibres."

The ginger colour is always attached to a tabby pattern which is why I always refer to these cats as ginger tabby tabbies. Nearly all ginger cats are males because ginger is a sex-link characteristic. Female ginger cats are usually sterile when they occasionally occur.