I turned my cat-a-day calendar today to a photo of a tortie. That’s a tortoiseshell cat—you know, one with black and orange swirls all over her body. Our Sophie is what I consider to be a tortie, however, she isn’t in actuality. She has a beautiful white patch on her tummy, making her a calico by some standards. But if you never see her underside, you would be convinced she is a tortie.
The information with the tortie’s photo on my calendar says that these cats can be difficult and that’s why they’re known to have “tortitude.” I don’t see that with Sophie. She actually has a gentle, loving way about her. She’s still skittish where strangers are concerned. In fact just about everyone except those of us who live in the house is a stranger to be feared as far as Sophie is concerned. Poor thing.
Yes, she was a street kitty, living feral for the first 10-weeks of her life. A good Samaritan plucked her from her plight and delivered her to a local veterinarian who had a reputation for helping the homeless feline population. He spayed her with the intention of turning her back out into a feral colony. However, he saw promise in her—thought she could possibly be happily domesticated. Since his vet tech knew us and knew we had recently lost our sweet Himalayan, she called, we loaded up the carrier and came home with Sophie.
We’ll celebrate Sophie’s eleventh birthday this year. She has been a sweet, loving, and entertaining companion. And she has manners. She doesn’t beg, miss the litter box, tear up furniture, bite or scratch us. She’s a purrfect lady. She doesn’t even shed much. And she loves to be groomed.
Have you ever had a tortie? What was her purrsonality?
I’ve been managed by a long line of rescued tortie girls as well as calicoes, who some also claim to be difficult. All my tri-colors, torties and calicos, have been the sweetest girls and often quite friendly, including my current rescue, Sienna. The other thing they have in common is their exceptional beauty. They are really stars!
Three cheers for the Tortie and the outstanding calico (some of my favorites). Lily is actually a torbie–tortoise shell/tabby. However, with the white, I guess she’s actually a callie-tab or tabbyco.
Patricia
I have a torbie with white (mittens, tummy, and neck) and she is very loving and devoted-but just to me and must me near or on me. She sleeps ‘ON my side’ every nite. She follows me everywhere but is very skittish around anyone other than our immediate family and will hide when company is in the house. She is a talker and meows her needs – her bad habit is she is scratcher of furniture though. She loves her non-talker-social- litter mate (brother) black cat with similar white markings and holds her own when they wrestle. Love my 2very different cats! Both are beautiful in their own way!
Your torbie sounds like she looks like my Lily–does she? She sounds like she could be Lily in some ways. But Lily isn’t much of a talker–just when she wants to get her point across. It is interesting how cats can be so much the same, yet so different.