Orange Maine Coon Cat Grooming Her Red-Haired Dad Is The Cutest 'Ginger Love'
When a cat chooses a favorite person, sometimes that feline affection can go to hilarious extremes. Take, for example, Mayo the Maine coon. In an amusing TikTok video captioned "Just a Tang flavoured dad n daughter" — which has been viewed more than 69,000 times and racked up over 13,000 likes — the ginger cat is wrapped around her dad's shoulders, enthusiastically grooming his ginger hair. Text overlaid on the video is written from Mayo's perspective: "When my orange flavoured dad gets home from work, and I need to recharge my own orange."
@mayothemainecoon Just a tang flavoured dad n daughter. #catdad #orangecat #mainecoon #funnycat #adorablecat
"That's a different kinda love right 👍🏼❤️," one viewer wrote, to which the video's creator (and wife of the ginger-haired cat dad) responded, "It's ginger love 🥰." Another netizen commented, "This is so cute 🥰 two gingers in love," and one person joked, "No DNA test needed there! That is his daughter 🥰." Many viewers assumed that Mayo had to be male and were surprised to learn that the 1-year-old, 18-pound ginger cat is, in fact, female. One exclaimed, "AN ORANGE FEMALE??? AND A MAINECOON OMG!!! She is such a rare beauty, I hope you know how lucky you are 🥹 she's beautiful."
Why are almost all ginger cats male?
Is there such a thing as too much ginger? One viewer of the TikTok video warned about Mayo, "Ohhh she is beautiful! Although I think you might be accumulating too much orange power." Anyone who's ever shared their home with a ginger kitty can attest that these creatures have a distinctive orange cat personality best summed up as "large and in charge." Mayo certainly seems to be in charge of her human dad's grooming. But why are ginger cats like Mayo — an amazing orange cat name, by the way — usually male, not female? It's a matter of genetics.
About 20% of orange cats are female. If you cast your mind back to your high school science textbook, you may remember learning that male mammals have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome (XY), and females have two X chromosomes (XX). The Arhgap36 genetic mutation responsible for ginger fur is carried on the X chromosome, so for a male cat to be born ginger, he must inherit this mutation on his X chromosome. However, for a female cat to have ginger fur, she must inherit the mutation on both of her X chromosomes, which occurs infrequently.
A related genetic quirk means that more than 99% of calico and tortoiseshell cats are female, occurring when a female cat inherits the Arhgap36 mutation on one of her X chromosomes. A male calico or tortoiseshell cat has most likely been born with an extra chromosome (XXY) that, unfortunately, also makes him sterile.