Meanwhile, Kittens

The kittens are settling in well!

This is Cammy. The shelter named her "Eden" but it really didn't fit. She is ridiculously bold and fearless and cuddly.

This is Rose. Or, as I keep calling her, "Tiny Tortie." She is sporadically skittish (except when she isn't) but has taken to following me around and sleeping on my laptop bag while I work. In this photo, she became annoyed by my e-book formatting and decided to switch the screens around to help.

I have informed her repeatedly that she is Kevin's kitten. I have informed Kevin that she is Kevin's kitten. Neither of them appear to believe me. Kevin finds this funny. Sergei finds it all very disturbing because it is HIS job to lay on my laptop bag and now pins himself against me on the bed in hopes that I will protect him from the very upsetting kittens.

Despite her assistance, Bryony and Roses, the next T. Kingfisher novel, is formatted and off to the proofreaders and may soon see the light of day!

Question--I asked this on Twitter, but reports are mixed. I have never had a tortoiseshell around before. She is VERY...not talkative, exactly, (not like the Siamese, who is clearly demanding something from you) but she grumbles and grumps and makes disgruntled little mews constantly. It is like she is keeping up a running commentary.

I am skeptical of coat color actually being linked to personality--although every little orange male I have known has been a delight--but I keep reading about "tortitude." Anybody have any experience?

81 comments — :

( 81 comments — Leave a comment )

nomercles

2015-05-11 12:02 am (UTC)

I've had 3 torties at various times. (I call them tortes, because they're sweet, like dessert). Anyway, none of them have been disagreeable, though one was exceptionally clingy and would chew me out if I didn't pay her sufficient attention. Or if I left the room. Whichever. However, all three of them were freaking chatterboxes!

Chloe, my first, the one who was disconsolate at me leaving, did the grumble thing, too. Even in her sleep. No cat since has matched her level of conversation.

thebluerose

2015-05-11 12:08 am (UTC)

I didnt know her when she was a kitten but i lived with a very entitled tortie who had very firm opinions on everything. I don't recall her making much noise as it was a house of 4 cats but i picked her up once and she slashed my eyelid with a claw.

She also took to peeing on my belongings to show here opinion of my being in the house hold, this included books, my bed in the spare room and then finally a leatherjacket that had fallen on the floor.

At that point I decided to leave!

No fond memories of torties, in fact I am not a fan of girl cats at all, I find them all neurotic and bitchy.

hbruton

2015-05-11 12:09 am (UTC)

I had a tortie for 17 years and can vouch for the whole tortitude thing. I know have calicos and know the meaning of calico crazy.

sirfox

2015-05-11 12:34 am (UTC)

Seconded. It's not that they're all a certain sort of crazy, each one gets a few rolls on the "peculiar traits" tables.

(no subject) —

kitan — Expand

Orange females are rare…

franklanguage

2015-05-11 12:10 am (UTC)

Not as rare as I thought, apparently, but still quite a minority compared to orange males.

Looks like Cammy is a polydactyl?

Re: Orange females are rare…

archangelbeth

2015-05-11 02:35 am (UTC)

Nah, I bet that that's a regular thumb, just splayed out a bit.

I would link to some pictures of our thumb-cat, but she is a black cat so it's hard to get a really good thumb-pic -- but it goes out a lot longer than Cammy's.

Re: Orange females are rare… —

mohya — Expand

talyxsaunt — Expand

mmegaera — Expand

vulpine137

2015-05-11 12:21 am (UTC)

Personal experience is that Torties do tend to have attitude. Kind of like the redheads of the kitty world.

ashbet

My girlfriend's elderly tortie, Vixen (who I've known for 11 years now), and she's actually anti-chatty, in a way -- she makes little near-silent squeaks, "eck-ecks," and a funny meow that sounds like she's saying hello ("herrrrow!")

She's a total sweetheart who loves to cuddle, so I've had very positive tortie-experiences :)

-- A <3

tamnonlinear

2015-05-11 12:24 am (UTC)

KITTENS! Hi kittens!

My Jaimie has the nickname of complain-o-matic. She's not so much got an attitude (she's really quite sweet) as she does a need to comment on everything with little chattery noises and harrumphs.

madam_atom

2015-05-11 12:28 am (UTC)

Our Nugget is the only tortoiseshell I have much experience with, and she is NOT our talker. (That would be the orange male, Arex, who IS a delight both because of and in spite of being an unbelievable chatterbox, with this funny bark-y meow.) Nugget is, however, a diva, and has never forgiven us for bringing other cats into the household after her. She's becoming even grumpier in her old age; she likes humans but bullies the other cats. And she does get loud when she's begging us for raw chicken, which is any time she sees us doing anything at all with the stove.

toshirodragon

2015-05-11 12:30 am (UTC)

I think her twin sister lives in my house :D

pixel39 — Expand

2015-05-11 12:29 am (UTC)

When Miss Kitty is irked she totally grumps out loud. when she was younger she would chitter, much like a Siamese, when she was getting ready to hunt something. Now she just growls a lot (she's STILL offended that we brought in a kitten a year ago)

wilhelmina_d

2015-05-11 12:32 am (UTC)

I have found a tendency, not an exact correlation, for certain personality traits to be linked to fur patterns. I wanted a tabby because they're so delightfully neurotic and my current cat bears it out. I've had tuxedo/jellicle cats who've both been very much supervisors, having to watch and/or help with whatever I was doing. I've heard of tortie-tude, though I've never had a tortie. FWIW, from my experience.

rusti_knight

2015-05-11 01:01 am (UTC)

You know, I was a vet tech for a few years before moving onto another career and I'd never noticed the tabby neurotic trait until I adopted a kitten from a clinic cat (who was dropped with the clinic while she was pregnant and we just let her have her babies before we spayed her).

OMG that tabby is a mess. We don't get along very well, she and I, but she LOVES my dad, who is quite rough with her.

jaxomsride — Expand

deliriumsama

My cat is a tortie, and she's ... chatty. She talks to herself while she plays, especially. She is, however, otherwise completely mellow. My understanding was that "tortitude" referred to their cranky temper. My vet refers to the personality type as "spicy". Mo is significantly more grumpy and feisty than her brother, who was an orange tabby, but many things fit that description, including most couch cushions.

killiara

2015-05-11 12:38 am (UTC)

The cat deciding you are her person is totally Karma for all the "But it looks SAD" in DnD.

Torties

dragonet2

2015-05-11 12:57 am (UTC)

Ripley often has a running commentary but it's to herself. Quietly.

Then again, if she wants something, she makes this Marge Simpson-esque noise.
That is not quiet.

nomadicwriter

2015-05-11 01:24 am (UTC)

Our tortoiseshell was a real high-strung attention-seeker (both ours and that of Older Cat Who Just Wanted To Sleep) and yes, a bit of a talker and grumbler. She was also quite vicious and prone to swiping people we first got her, though she mellowed out with age. But it's hard to say how much was natural temperament and how much the situation we adopted her from. (She was the youngest of four cats kept by someone who was out most of the day, and hence super neurotic about checking whether there was food available all the time even though she wasn't actually very interested in eating it.)

Her favourite habits were sitting under my desk and patting my leg at every couple of seconds in the half hour leading up to feeding time, sidling steadily closer to Older Cat across the floor until he got fed up with her sitting on him and stalked off in a huff, and Being Very Concerned about human beings lying on beds during the day. (This was apparently very worrying behaviour and required her come and sit bolt upright next to the bed, staring at you very intently from a few inches away, and eventually put her feet up on the edge of the bed and start poking you until you gave up and got up again.)

eve_prime

My long-haired tortoiseshell, Sappho, was the mellowest cat I've ever met. She would allow random 5-year-olds in the neighborhood to pick her up around the middle and carry her about, without even struggling. Our roommate could spin her on a hardwood floor without complaints. She did have kind of a perverse sense of mischief, especially as a kitten, but she was sure a sweetheart.

theidolhands

2015-05-11 10:21 am (UTC)

Mine was longer haired too and I looked after another fluffy tortoise/calico as a cat-sitting gig who was similarly sweet & shy. The worst one could've said about either, was that they could be a little neurotic, but I wouldn't call either crazy.

Edited at 2015-05-11 10:21 am (UTC)

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ursulav

Bark Like A Fish, Damnit!

Meanwhile, Kittens

Orange females are rare…

Re: Orange females are rare…

Torties