Cats come in all sorts of furry colors, but we’re always seeing color combinations that make us stop in our tracks. On rare occasions, it looks like a cat’s coat was put together with leftover parts at the factory.
While we can’t be sure exactly what’s going on genetically, people love coming up with funny explanations!
Torbie Got a Splashed with Orange
A beautiful barn cat from France named Mamou has made a splash on social media. She lives in a stable with horses and a dog, and her family considers her ‘the most ‘beautiful cat in the world’ with a ‘touch of Picasso.’
On TikTok, everyone is delighted to get a visit from Mamou as she trots about the farm. As you can see, it looks as though she dipped her tail in orange.
Mamou the torbie kitty via TikTok/maikoh.the.wolf
We loved seeing all the explanations in the comments for why Mamou, a torbie like our kitties, Jugg and Zig Zag, has that striking tail tip color.
“When you are the last cat of the day, and they have run out of tails in your color,” said one person.
MamouChat the torbie kitty via TikTok/maikoh.the.wolf
Many had funny ideas for Mamou’s striking orange tail:
- She’s a ‘rattle cat’ with a rattlesnake tail or a scorpion stinger.
- This kitty carries the Olympic flame.
- Once, the cat fell into the river Styx, and the orange is the cat’s Achilles heel.
- She was painted while being held by the tail.
- There was a tail tip transplant or a spare part from another cat.
- The printer ran out of ink.
- The tail fell into bleach.
- This is a refurbished cat.
- Mamou is part raccoon.
- She’s 10% silly.
- She is chocolate dipped with a waffle tail.
- Her skin didn’t download properly.
Video via TikTok/maikoh.the.wolf
Interestingly, Mamou has a kitten who is black with a white tail tip! But she’s quite assertive that this older kitten leave the nest.
Mamou and her kitten
Video via TikTok/maikoh.the.wolf
Ameowzing Torbie Splash Mash-Ups!
Here are two more ameowzing torbie cats that look as if they are a mash-up of more than one cat. This cat is likely from Europe and looks like a typical tabby until we get to the tail. Once again, it’s the lightest orange with a white tip! A creamsicle tail!
As with Mamou, people had such funny ideas about why this kitty’s tail is orange:
- They washed the tail tip but that’s it.
- There was a tail bleaching incident.
- This unusual cat is a mythical red panda hybrid.
Image via Reddit/Kattjavel
In the comments, someone wondered if a mystery gene might be involved.
“I wonder if this is the same gene that sometimes gives guys with brown hair red beards,” said a Redditor.
Experts say having unexpected patches of red hair can be related to a mutated gene, MC1R. If people only inherit one of the mutated genes rather than two, red hair can appear unexpectedly. Thus, a guy with brown hair can have a red mustache. Purrhaps this is similar to cats? Their fur color is the result of the same two types of melanin as our own.
Without knowing for sure, some think the cat could also be a chimera, with genes from more than one embryo that fused in the womb. A chimera cat can be truly beautiful, and the ones we’ve seen tend to look like they are split right down the middle of the face, with different eye colors on each side.
However, this feline is only visibly affected on the creamsicle.
A Glitch in the Matrix?
Here’s another unusual beauty, this time a torbie with the strangest mash-up of orange across the left front paw and shoulder. Some say the kitty is a ‘Caliby’ or a “Tabico”, a calico-tabby mix-up. She was a house cat spending some time outdoors in the city on a warm day somewhere in Russia.
Reddit had some funny explanations for this most-unusual feline:
- Some freak matrix glitch
- This cat is wearing a catsuit or a dickey for cats.
- The kitty got mixed up in the Star Trek teleportation transporter.
- A Frankencat?
Whatever is happening with this cat’s genes, the result it delightfully odd. We’ll leave it to the scientists to figure that out while we simply enjoy! According to the poster, the cat was healthy and well-fed. And we’re sure people stopped in their tracks when they saw this kitty!
Image via Reddit/Stormaris
