“Love me, feed me, never leave me!”
“All I do is eat and sleep. Eat and sleep. Eat and sleep. There must be more to a cat’s life than this, but I hope not.”
-Garfield
Marmalade Hamm!
Marmalade, ginger, orange tabby- these are names for all cats cute and carrot-topped. Made famous by Garfield- an iconic representation of the marmalade ideal- these fiery bundles of fur are more often than not characters in their own right. Yellowish, orange, or reddish in hue, these cats come in all shapes and sizes- especially the very large!
Typically tabby (a word that derives from “Attabbiyah”- a neighbourhood of Baghdad that used to manufacture a striped silk cloth), and 80% male, marmelades come in four patterns: Classic, Striped, Mackerel, and Ticked. the marmalade more often than not has darker-hued stripes on his legs, tail, and back that run in unbroken lines from the flanks to the underbelly (a la Garfield), as well as a distinctive “M” mark on his forehead. The story goes that when the baby Jesus was asleep in the manger, an orange tabby cat curled up next to him and purred, soothing the baby to sleep. Mary was then said to have picked him up and kissed him on the forehead- resulting in her initial carved on his brow for eternity. Besides the “M”, black freckles often develop on the nose. Otherwise, marmalade colouring can vary, characterized by anything from darker blotches against a yellowish or brownish background, white spots on the tail, paws, belly, and legs, or even just being orange all over. Sometimes the markings may be so faint that these tabbies appear to be a solid colour.
It remains unclear to geneticists and veterinarians why the species is predominantly born male. What is understood, although it is not understood why, is that with cats, colour is a gender-based trait. With gingers, the “red” gene is carried in the X chromosome, and as males only have one X chromosome, they only require one of these genes to inherit an outward red appearance. Females, which carry two X chromosones, require both “red” genes to match. However, because cats may produce a single litter from more than one father, it becomes almost impossible to define the working of the gene pool. With many recessive and dominant genes mysteriously at play, what you see is not always what you get, and a cat’s genotype- or his outward appearance- might not always be the same as his phenotype, or his inherent genetic coding, and therefore, because the gross appearance does not necessarily carry onto that of the offspring, the colouring of any kittens is impossible to determine based on that of the parents’.
What is certain, says Albion Hill’s Lorna Lee, D.V.M., is that although hardly proven by cold, hard scientific data, marmalades tend to be “quieter, sweet, friendly. More laid back”. In general, they are excessively good-natured and naturally predisposed to becoming over-weight, which should be a concern for owners as their cat ages. So, it would seem Garfield’s famous penchant for lasagna and his proudly rounded belly are not too far off off!
Famous Ginger Cats
-Winston Churchill owned an orange tabby named Jock who often attended wartime cabinet meetings with his master. No one started eating until Jock was seated at the table along with the other ministers. He slept with the Prime Minister reportedly every night, even up until the end of Churchill’s life, and was named in his will. Churchill even commissioned a portrait of his favourite cat, although he owned several gingers during his lifetime.
-“Cat”, Audrey Hepburn’s cat in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, was a major character in the film and helped bring together Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard’s character in the final scene. The cat-star Orangey later went on to appear in several films and television series throughout his lifetime and won two Patsy Awards.
-Orion: the white-splotched tabby who has the universe dangling from his collar in 1997’s Men in Black.
-In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the android Data had a marmalade cat named Spot who appears in several episodes. In one, Data creates over 200 foods for her, causing the ship’s replicator system to malfunction, only producing cat food for the entire crew. In another, Commander Riker agrees to catsit for Data while he attends a conference, but Spot does not take to Riker and causes mayhem in making her displeasure known.
-Thomas O’Malley from Disney’s The Aristocats was a street-wise ginger who meets Duchess, voiced by Eva Gabor, and returns helps return her to Paris.
-Garfield, of course!
Featured in Caledon Living, Spring 2013 ed.