All black cats are male

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by Beachlife!

My tortie is a very sweet cat to humans, but hates all other cats.

My brindled tortie Holly was too feisty even for the vet - really bad temper. Motley was also a brindled tortie, but with less red, and was a complete sweetie even with children getting a little too physical. The degree of red and temperament differences are, IMHO, coincidental, but it turns out that mosaic organisms (in the case of torties they have different X chromosomes active in different tissues, including internal organs) may be more predisposed to cancers and also to psychological problems> The "naughty tortie" epithet has some basis, but it would depends on how much of a mosaic the brain was.

[catty5nutz]

We have had several black cats over the years, Sunshine, Jade, Fluffybum, Shan, Murphy and Zebby. Of these, Zebby is the only male. We have also had three tabbies [all boys] two tuxedos [female and male] and a ginger [male]

Not to mention all the cats that have decided over the years that our place makes a good second home. There is Rambo and Hemi [both black males], Moriarty [a gray male], Fluff, Bubbles and Jack [tabbies]

[missy_pooh_1997]

Ive had an all black cat since the 10th grade and its a female.

[Mosherette]

My mum's female ginger cat is the devil incarnate to everyone except mum, my sister and my husband. If looks could kill, she would have had me dead and buried about 13 years ago.

My mum's female black cat, however, is uberuberuberaffectionate

[Rebochan]

Originally Posted by Beachlife!

My tortie is a very sweet cat to humans, but hates all other cats.

My Lorelei is the same way - loves people, hates cats. She has a tolerance for my other cat because I adopted them together and Carter was just a kitten at the time - and she loved to baby kittens. So they grew up together. And once in a while, I'll actually catch them napping together - usually they can't share the same space without one trying to eject the other.

Carter's black and he's an oddball - he definitely loves to be super affectionate to me, but he can be shy when there's a lot of people around.

[LizzyBean]

Our little black female kitten, Pywacket, would be very surprised to hear this UL!

[Xia]

I have a solid black female Maine Coon:
Photo - Roxy

Her parents were both solid black as well. She also happens to be polydactyl.
My previous cat Sylvia was also a black female cat, but unlike Roxy she had some white markings- a small spot on her chest and a larger white area on her lower stomach that looked like underwear or a bikini bottom (in the right place, too!)

Originally Posted by llewtrah

My brindled tortie Holly was too feisty even for the vet - really bad temper. Motley was also a brindled tortie, but with less red, and was a complete sweetie even with children getting a little too physical.

What is a brindled tortie? I've never heard of that term before, is it like a torbie aka patched tabby?
I have a ticked torbie with white and she is a sweetie. She doesn't have a lot of white, just her paws and part of her chest/neck. I think her temperament has something to do with her upbringing, she was part of a litter I hand-raised (bottle fed) and they are all very sweet, loving and friendly even with new people.

[Assilem Brandywine]

Reading this made me think of Luna and Artemis from Sailor Moon. Luna is a female cat who is completely black if you don't count the crescent mark on her head. Artemis is white (save for his crescent mark) with blue eyes, but doesn't seem to have hearing problems. Both have a fondness for sweets, which cats shouldn't be able to taste. Oh yeah, AND THEY CAN TALK!

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by Xia

What is a brindled tortie? I've never heard of that term before, is it like a torbie aka patched tabby?

Pics of brindled torties. Imagine a calico that's been stirred.

[Xia]

Originally Posted by Assilem Brandywine

Reading this made me think of Luna and Artemis from Sailor Moon. Luna is a female cat who is completely black if you don't count the crescent mark on her head. Artemis is white (save for his crescent mark) with blue eyes, but doesn't seem to have hearing problems. Both have a fondness for sweets, which cats shouldn't be able to taste.

It's funny, I was eating cotton candy yesterday and my cat Blaze came up and looked really interested. I offered him a bit, figuring he'd sniff it and leave but he actually ate it! I can't figure out why he liked it since it is pretty much pure sugar so it shouldn't have tasted like much to him.

Originally Posted by Lainie

Pics of brindled torties. Imagine a calico that's been stirred.

Oh ok, so it just means a tortie without large solid areas of red/black?
I think my torbie Harley might qualify then, but it would really confuse people if I added it to her description and called her a brown ticked brindled torbie and white; or a brown ticked patched brindled tabby and white.
Her "official" color designation for cat shows is brown ticked torbie and white. Brown because her base is brown/black tabby, ticked because she has ticking like an Abyssinian instead of stripes like a regular tabby, and torbie because she has orange and brown so she is tortie as well as tabby (in some places they call this patched tabby.)

[mouse goddess]

I made mouse chimeras at my job. We'd inject albino mouse embryos with agouti stem cells. Depending on how many of the stem cells "took" you could end up with an all white mouse with just one tiny brown spot, to an all brown mouse with a tiny white spot. The cuter ones however, were the very spotty brown/white leopard-y ones.

[Lainie]

Xia, Harley is adorable.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by Assilem Brandywine

Both have a fondness for sweets, which cats shouldn't be able to taste.

There's been more done on this in the last several years. Cats can taste sweetness, but poorly (rather than not at all). It seems that their receptors for water override the sweetness receptors. So they disregard sweetness rather than being completely unable to detect it.

[kitap]

Originally Posted by llewtrah

There's been more done on this in the last several years. Cats can taste sweetness, but poorly (rather than not at all). It seems that their receptors for water override the sweetness receptors. So they disregard sweetness rather than being completely unable to detect it.

I always said my late kitty Ambrose had a sweet tooth. What cat otherwise would turn his nose up at steak juice but chew through plastic to get to angel food cake? Also chocolate chip cookies.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by Xia

Oh ok, so it just means a tortie without large solid areas of red/black?

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/brindled

"marked with streaks, streaked with a dark color,"

So it's an animal where the colours are intermixed or streaked. Pretty common in Greyhounds and other dog breeds where it's generally sandy-and-dark brindling. Brindled is the term used in cat show standards of points. The GCCF breed standards look for torties with well brindled coats, not distinct patches of colour (in breeds where tortie is a permitted colour).

[Xia]

I know what brindle is in dogs, I just wasn't aware of the term being used for cats. I've never paid much attention to the points info for breeds since I mostly have shown household pets (and my solid black Maine Coon a bit) but I am pretty sure they don't use the word brindle/brindled much in the organizations I've shown in.