What Your Cat's Color Really Tells You (And What It Doesn't)

The Cat Problem Solver, my large-print book of 66 everyday cat troubles and what to do about each, and a free chapter: margieknowscats.com Everybody has a theory about what a cat's color says about her temperament, and it quietly costs good cats a place at the shelter and a fair hearing at home. I walk through ten coats, from the orange boy and the tortie's map to the black cat's ghost stripes, the white cat who may not hear you, and the plain tabby who came first, and explain what each one really tells you: family, whether she is a boy or a girl, sometimes hearing, and never her heart. You will leave with simple things to try tonight, like checking for banded hairs in window light, taking a photo of each side of her markings, and learning her three answers instead of trusting a color chart. After forty years with cats, twenty of them in a county shelter's cat room, I have learned to read the cat before the card, and I would like you to do the same. 0:00 What a coat can and can't tell you 0:32 1. The orange cat, the clown 2:32 2. Tortoiseshell, calico and the attitude 4:19 3. The black cat nobody can read 5:55 4. The tuxedo and the white socks 7:41 5. Grey and cream, the soft ones 9:19 6. The coat that's a thermometer 11:03 7. The white cat who ignores you 12:40 8. The color on the kennel card 14:19 9. The plain tabby by the window 16:01 10. What no coat can tell you