Are Ginger Cats Stupid?
I’ve seen two social media posts recently that suggest ginger cats are “looks, not books” and that they all share one brain cell. If the internet says it, it must be true, right?
My big ginger Ebenezer certainly supports this assertion. He’s sitting on my lap right now, his butt in the air, tail swishing. He’s big and slow and spends most of his day hiding under my bed. My sister likens him to Tom Cullen from Stephen King’s The Stand. When Ebbie gets up on her lap, she quotes Tom Cullen at him, “M-o-o-n spells moon.” Ebenezer responds, “Laws yes.”
Ebenezer snores loudly and has powerful farts. He’s really sweet — until, suddenly, his crazy switch gets flipped and he decides to bite. He gives the best neck massages.
My other ginger, Winnifred, finds the idea that gingers are stupid to be insulting and bigoted. She’s smart and cranky — and tiny. Winnie spends most of her time perched on top of my bathroom door or sleeping on my water heater. If she can sneak into my guest room — and she’s really good at sneaking — she’ll hide in the closet for hours, sleeping on the spare pillow up on the top shelf. Occasionally, she’ll have herself an adventure that involves walking across the clothes bar. If my sock drawer isn’t closed all the way — and it often isn’t — she’ll reach her paws in and pull out a bunch of socks. And then she’ll laugh and laugh. Winnie is a thief who likes to steal hair ties and the bathroom sink stopper.
She hates most of my other cats. Ebenezer is her best friend because gingers have to stick together.
The fact that Winnie is female makes her unusual for an orange tabby. Most of them are male. Therefore, I probably can’t use her as an example of typical ginger cat behavior.
These are the only gingers I’ve ever had, so I don’t have any other ginger cats to compare them to. The posts I saw on Facebook suggest Ebenezer is typical — big and dumb. The thing is, “orange tabby” isn’t a breed. It’s just a color and pattern. I’m guessing, if we took 100 orange tabbies and gave them some kind of cat IQ test (does such a thing exist?), we’d find ourselves with a bell curve. According to this article from Better With Cats, most of them are at least average in intelligence — and a cat’s intelligence is more related to other factors besides color, such as breed and health.
Do you have a ginger cat in your life? Is he (or she!) maybe a little less intelligent than other cats? Or is he (or she!) a veritable genius among felines? Please let me know in the comments.
