Orange, red, marmalade, ginger cats abound. Shades vary from Chivers (pale, thinly shredded marmalade in colour) through Ana Half-Tail (traditional orange) to Early Lately (darker cinnamon swirl).

Yes, it’s time to meet the orange cats of The Cat’s family and neighbourhood.

The one and only long-term resident (and the original and genuine) orange cat of The Cat’s garden was of course Ana Half-Tail, Number One Son. Since his departure to pastures new it is obvious that a wide range of orange is available in the vicinity. Almost as many different orange cats as there are varieties of orange tree, in fact.

Not as long-term a resident as we would have liked was young Early Lately, he of the darker cinnamon swirl (and no white whatsoever). He was born in a pile of twigs in The Cat’s garden as part of a colony of two females (The Cat and her daughter) plus their eight kittens, born only days apart. Sadly Early Lately’s days were much reduced by an evil virus which tore through the kitten community taking Early, his two siblings and one litter-mate, all within a period of weeks.

Then there is the Greater Orange, Saturday (sworn enemy of Sunday), a solid cat with a big head, wide neck and powerful shoulders. We won’t mention the limp because it’s much improved at the moment. Saturday and The Cat have a cordial relationship; they enjoy each other’s company and, possibly more importantly, he enjoys her food.

Then we have the Lesser Orange. These number a few. In past years there was Chivers, a pale yellowy-furred cat, and Debrin. Debrin, with his wide forehead and insolent expression, is one of only two cats identified as passing the unpleasantness test with a high enough score to warrant discouraging from visiting the garden.

And then we have the Middling Orange. Durante was named for Jimmy Durante, because he sniffed the air very thoroughly before venturing into The Cat’s garden. Durante started off as a pleasant cat, easy to feed and unassuming, but as the months passed he matured and occasionally showed another side to his character.

When the night food bowl at the front door came into operation, another ginger appeared. Rapidly running out of suitable names he was identified as being Middling Orange and named G4 (G1 (Ginger 1) being Ana, G2 Early Lately, G3 Saturday etc). Then G5 appeared. He was easier to identify, being a darker shade, and he was much easier to name. G6 was further identified as an in between orange, a Middling/Lesser Orange hybrid, not quite mature but well on the way.

The difficulties of identifying these orange visitors in varying degrees of dawn and dusk (and never in each others’ company for ease of comparison) has led to the realisation that Durante and G4 are one and the same cat. Despite counting rings on tails, trying to memorise mackerel patterns on fur coats, checking teeth for completeness, and pointed questions like ‘did he have three stripes down his back?’ ‘did he have freckles on his nose?’ ‘has he got scabs on his ears?’ ‘are his eyes watering?’, confusion still reigns. There are times when we think we are up to G7. But who knows?

And in case you’re wondering, the cat on the roof in the photo is Saturday. Definitely. We think. If we discover it isn’t, we’ll let you know.

 

 

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