In your opinion, which breed of cat has the nicest temperament?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Always try to get a cat to adopt you.

When we went to the shelter to get adopted, I plopped down in the middle of the floor of the kitten room. Several came by to sniff, but one immediately jumped in my lap and demanded affection. Then she attacked my shoelaces. That wasHavoc. Then as I was looking at the other kittens, one reached out from her hiding place in a tree and batted at my ear. Turned out to be Havoc’s sister, Pixel. We considered ourselves adopted at that point. They are best buds, and rule the house.

22

Cockatiel, I did the same as you when I wanted a kitty seven years ago. I talked to breeders, and they all basically told me their breed was the best, personality and behaviour-wise. They also told me that all other breeders breeder produced arrogant, ill-behaving monsters. So I stopped believing all of them. :slight_smile:

What I should have done was go to the shelter and ask them for a cat with exactly the character I was looking for. They know a lot about their cats, from observing them and from the stories of their previous owners. Owners who have to let the cat go becuse, for instance, the new-born baby is allergic to cats, have no reason to lie about their cat’s character.

I’ve also heard and seen the adoptee-process happen** silenus** describes. It’s kind of mystical, but often yield good results too.

What I did in the end, I can’t recommend. A collegue of mine had a litter, and I picked out one of the kittens. Partly it was because I had always wanted a cute kitten when I had always inherited adult cats; partly because I thougth I could raise and train him; partly it was because I felt a kitten would charm the landlady, who wasn’t really sure about me having cats in my apartment.
I have to say: the charming the-landlady-part went smoothly. But my cute beautiful kitten turned out to have a fairly neurotic streak, and although I loved him to pieces, I can’t say he was the best cat ever. It certainly didn’t cause me as much grief as I thought it would when my ex wanted to keep him when we parted.

23

Great stories, I have enjoyed them all, as a cat-person.

Slight nitpick, though: Instead of mutts, I prefer the term “Heinz-57.”

24

Out of all the cats I’ve been aquainted with, the sweetest were Maine Coon boys. With my Burmese female comming in at a close second. Ragdolls are nice to, they’re quiet and love to be held.

25

I was gonna say this too. I’ve never known an orange tabby that wasn’t sweet, docile, and affectionate and I’ve heard other people remark on it was well. And the orange is a sex-linked trait so something like 98% of orange tabbies are male. Both of my current kitties are white but with orange tabby “points” and they’re both exceptionally affable cats.

26

This is the way that I got my cat, or rather, she got me. We went into the Humane Society with the idea of getting a kitten, but this young adult Siamese or Siamese mix caught my eye. The cats were not free roaming, they were in individual cages (sometimes cats that had been found together were in larger cages), so we didn’t have cats coming up to us. When I opened the cage, she flowed right into my arms and told me that I was her Mom, and what took me so long to get her? Needless to say, she’s the one who came home with me. In fact, she’s sleeping in this room with me now.

Siamese are rather different from other cats, personality-wise. What is considered separation anxiety in other cats is just the norm for a Siamese. They’re talkative and social, and they do tend to bond to one person in the household, though mine have always enjoyed the attention of the whole family. My current cat, Sapphire, is quite outgoing. She loves my husband and daughter, and greatly enjoys having (human) visitors in the house. Anyone who is thinking about getting a Siamese should be aware that these cats need a lot of human interaction, and they are very, very LOUD. They vocalize quite a bit, and expect their humans to talk to them, too.

I suggest getting two cats, rather than just one. Almost all cats enjoy having some feline companionship. Two cats are only slightly more expensive than one, and they will amaze you with their antics.

27

So far, I’ve found that orange tabby boys are the absolute epitome of cool-ass cat. I’ve had an orange Manx boy and now have a 3/4 Maine Coon orange boy. Apparently, the orange tabby coloration is pretty much universally male linked, like torties are almost always girls. A friend had another orange boy who was my second favorite cat up until he died last summer of kidney failure.

I’m fond of long haired cats, and yes they do shed a fair amount and you have to brush them a LOT in spring so they don’t get horribly matted. The brushing and grooming tend to make them really mellow and lovey dovey and easy to handle, so that’s not such a bad thing. I find that grooming Stiggs makes me very relaxed and happy.

Cats that adopt you are the very best of all. Peaches, the twenty pound orange Manx I was owned by, just bumped my apartment door open one day, ate the cat food in the bowl, crapped in the litter box, jumped on my lap and announced he was here to stay. My actual cat just had to like it or lump it–apparently he didn’t like it much because he jumped out a second story window a few months after Peaches moved in and we never saw him again. :eek: That was a bummer, but it’s not like Peaches ever attacked him or anything–it was pure pique. I’ve had several other Manxes after Peaches and found them all to be mellow and sweet, with the exception of Bob, who was a half Siamese, half Manx lilac point. She was yowly and bitchy and didn’t like anybody much except for my SO.

Stiggs is my Number One cat, ten years old yesterday. He adopted me when I was napping at a rest stop in the middle of the night. We were just too tired to go on and were resting up to continue our trip when I was awakened by the most pitiful mewing imaginable. I got out and this tiny white kitten with grey/black tabby patches and a little stripy raccoon tail ran away from me–but only a little way at a time, and he was mewing to beat the band. I finally cornered him when he took refuge between the back wheels of a semi–I pulled him out backwards by his tail and took him home. He weighs about twenty pounds now, his fur grows so long it brushes the ground in midwinter and I have to trim around his chest and neck so he doesn’t get it caught in his mouth when he grooms himself. He’s a total lover–I completely fell for him when, as a tiny kitten, he developed the habit of draping himself all over my feet every time I sat down. Apparently he feels that naked human feet are dangerously susceptible to frostbite and it’s his responsibility to make sure they don’t get too chilled. He’s hands down the most cuddly, gregarious, sunny tempered cat ever–he loves people, loves to be petted and doesn’t play attack the hand–only chases long pieces of grass if some human will tease him with them. The only things that pissed him off were me getting a dog and adopting another kitten. He’s acclimated to both now, but he wasn’t thrilled. His breed is not evident, but judging from his fur growth pattern, snowshoe feet and tufted ears it’s not unlikely that he has some Norwegian Forest Cats in his genetic woodpile.

Pratchett is just shy of a year old, orange boy 3/4 Maine Coon mix with medium length very fluffy soft fur and an egregiously long and plumy stripey tail. He weighed in at 14 lbs a month ago when he had his shots updated and according to my research he could easily get to twenty five pounds by maturity. I don’t have any pix of Pratchett, but this cat could be his brother. Pratchett’s eyes are very green, though, not the usual gold color orange tabbies tend to have. He is absolutely the smartest, most confident cat I have EVER met. He thinks absolutely nothing of attacking my 135 lb Malemute by jumping on her head and biting her ear. He has taught himself how to open doors by hanging from the knob until it turns, and we’ve seen him do it–it’s not just inference that the cat WAS on one side of the door and now is on the other side… at first we just figured we weren’t closing the doors correctly, but nope, the little bugger had sussed out the door trick on his own. He loves to play rough with my SO, leaping five feet off the ground to attack his hand, knowing full well Daddy will swoop him up and hold him while he cheerfully gnaws the wrist. He also knows I don’t like playing rough, and even when he’s in full blown Attack Kitty mode I can come up and pet him WHILE HE’S PLAYING WITH MY SO and he will not bite me or scratch–he knows who’s who and never loses sight of who he can attack and who he can’t. He wakes me up ten minutes before the alarm goes off by purring like a chain saw right next to my ear, and has several times prevented me being late for work when power outages have decommissioned the alarm clock. He likes riding in the car as long as he isn’t confined in the carrier and loves looking out the window. He loves people food and wants to try everything we eat, even if he has to take it right off the plate. He’s very talky and will respond to anything you say to him with a huge variety of chirps, warbles and merps. He comes when you call him and will also come to finger snaps. He plays fetch for hours and especially loves sitting on top of a chair when I throw his toy, because he has a pretty good chance of jumping up and catching it midair. I’m waiting for him and the dog to figure out how to gang up to catch squirrels–Pratchett up the tree chasing them down so Space can grab 'em–it’s going to be mayhem sometime I’m sure.

So in a nutshell my recommendations are boy cats over girls if you want mellow tempers, neuter them as young as possible because cats that get to sexual maturity unaltered tend to be a lot less friendly and fun. Orange tabbies are anecdotally acknowledged to be great cats. Manxes and Maine Coons, in addition to being bloody huge are also well mannered, mellow and friendly in general. Siameses are great if they like you, complete bastards if they don’t–they tend to be one person cats. Get your kitten pretty young, preferably from a mother who is a pet herself and socialize the hell out of them because if they don’t get that handling when they’re tiny the window closes and they are much more likely to be “cat type” cats rather than “pet type” cats. The more you play with and intellectually challenge your kitten the more fun he’ll be all his life.

28

Get an adult cat. Kittens are cute, but you never know what kind of cat they’ll grow into. Two examples:

Dodget : He’s dumb as a bag of hammers. Heart of gold but a mind of mush. The crinkling sound of plastic bags scares the heck out of him (he got his head stuck in one when he was a kitten, and it “chased” him when he tried to run. Thusly, all plastic bags are evil), and he’s too nervous and jumpy to be a good lap cat. If you sneeze, he doesn’t just jump–he launches himself off and runs to hide under the bathtub.

Misty : She was supposed to be my cat. I picked her out from the shelter because she was so pretty (I was in kindergarten, which is why she’s named Misty), but she ended up hating me and is now my mom’s cat. She’s not a nice cat–she’ll often bite or scratch people who are just trying to pet her. Oddly enough, the other cat that we got with her, Booker (now deceased), was the nicest cat in the world. At the shelter, he was sick, covered in fleas, and crying his little kitten heart out. We fixed him up and he grew into a huge, fluffy Maine Coon kind of cat, who would make friends with anyone. I’m pretty sure that’s how he died–he was hit by a car, and I just bet he was following a new friend somewhere.

Anyway, Booker and Misty were friends for a couple years, then Misty started getting really mean and fighting with him all the time. Now Misty hates Dodget with a passion and beats on him all the time, even though he weighs twice what she does. He doesn’t realize he could take her on now–he was a kitten when we got him, and she was a grown cat. I wish Dodget had a kitty buddy. He was friends with Mr. Oz, the orange cat from next door (they would sprawl on our front porch together), but Mr. Oz was ancient and died not too long after they became friends.

If you get adult cats, there are probably pairs of them at the shelter, already bonded, so you won’t have to have to play kitty roulette and end up with a Mean Misty or a Dumb Dodget.

29

I echo those who say that mutts are the best. With purebreds, you pretty much know what kind of temperament you’re getting, but all sorts of temperaments can be found in generic cats, and there’s a lot more of the latter that need homes than the former.

My two cats, I got from a former coworker who had found a stray mother with her kittens. I picked out the runt (at 7 weeks, she weighed less than a pound) and then a few days later her sister. Both have filled out nicely, and turned out to have totally opposite temperments – Drusilla (the runt) is placid and easygoing but skittish, and a bit dim. Darla has the classic tortie temperament, always getting into trouble, bossing me and her sister around, and frequently hisses to show her anger when I have done something to displease her, such as removing her from the junk closet full of stuff dangerous to cats, or shifting her one foot to the left so I may put the freshly-cleaned litterbox back in its proper place.

They both turned out to be longhairs, but single-coated (like a Turkish angora), so their hair is long, fine, and silky, with no undercoat, and it never mats – I can brush them twice a week or so and they’re fine. They don’t shed much, either – in double-coated cats, it’s the undercoat that comes and goes with the seasons and is responsible for most of the loose hair production.

30

Thanks for all of your input, Dopers. Hopefully I’ll find the right cat for me!

(If anyone else has more to share, feel free)

31

Almost thirteen and a half years ago I was living in a kind of seedy neighborhood. I wanted a cat, but was a little worried I wasn’t home enough. One day my doorbell rang. The next door neighbor kid was holding this snarling scratching scrawny terrified scrap of brown fur. He asked if I wanted a cat, and said that some mom cat left this one in the bushes by her house along with another kitten. The story never did make sense because the other kitten was sort of an ordinary looking kitten about twice the size of the brown one and the brown one looks like this now that she is all grown up. Cocoa is independant, smart, affectionate and absolutely an incredable cat. When the time comes, I think I would do a havana brown again.

32

Orange Boys Are Ballsy Fun and Unbeatable!

33

I’ve found that black cats are usually really sweet cats, while white cats are pure evil.

I like Siamese cats, too. I had one half-Siamese cat named Funny Face who slept on my bed from the time I was 4 until she died when I was 22. She died the same year my grandfather, a friend, and an ex-girlfriend died, and I didn’t cry until Funny Face died. You could say I was attached to her.

I had a male “American Domestic Shorthair” in my mid-twenties. That’s one of those grey/brown/white/black tiger-striped cats with the letter “M” on their foreheads. His name was Mayhem, and he earned the name. He once nearly destroyed my television set by knocking it off it’s stand … okay, I’m lying. I knocked it off the stand while trying to catch him. He was on a tear. But one time, I was eating a burrito while watching TV, and I had put some really hot salsa on the burrito. When I finished the burrito, I set the plate on the floor, intending to take it to the kitchen during the next commercial break. Mayhem came running, and stuck his nose in the plate. I thought it would be funny to watch his reaction to the hot salsa. He nonchalantly proceeded to lick the plate clean. Tough cat! Either that, or cat’s simply lack the appropriate taste buds and so don’t notice “hot & spicy”. I’ve been meaning to find out about that …

34

Are Orange Tabbys more rare than they once were? I searched everywhere for one before settling for this blob of floppy, puffy joy.

35

That picture is hilarious. There should be a website for basket cats like there is for cats in sinks.

36

Not to hijack this thread, but since most of the people in this thread referred to mixed-breed cats as “mutts” … In the interest of fighting ignorance, I prefer the term “moggy” or “moggie.”

Here is a cite.

The Doctor

37

I see your Cats in Baskets, and raise you cats in basket-hampers

38

Maine-coon, but they are somewhat shy around strangers, sometimes. Longhaired, like the cold, very loyal, want to be around you.

Mutts are good. Wander down the aisle at a few shelters, and see who jumps into your arms. Or, there’s often “adopt-a-cat” days at larger pet stores. :cool:

The Rag-Doll is the ultimate lap cat.

For smarts & playfulness, there’s the Bengal.

39

Agreed on Bengals. They’re very friendly, very playful, and sometimes frighteningly clever, at least by cat standards. However, you might want to watch out if you let one play with a feather.

40

The only cat who was choosen for me (as opposed to them choosing me) hated me. It wasn’t her fault, bless her - I was only 7 at the time, and she had been tormented by kids as a kitten and hence associated all children with pure evil. We eventually rehomed her with an older lady who lived on our road, as the relationship had become too traumatic for both of us!

In general, actually, I find neutered males to be far more affectionate than their female counterparts. I’ve had lovely females, of course, but they tend to be much more independant and less tolerant of cuddles, whereas all my boys have soppy creatures, content to sit on my lap for hours, or in one case, sleep on my chest with his nose pressed up against mine (miss you, Erns).