However, aside from their colors, most do not understand why calico cats are the way they are. Now, Nitama (which literally means “Tama Two”), one of Tama’s former apprentices, serves as stationmaster at Kishi Station, continuing Tama’s epic legacy.Calico cats draw a lot of intrigue due to their rare and colorful nature. Tama has been given the distinguished title of “Honorable Eternal Station Master.” In keeping with the Japanese Shinto religious tradition, she was elevated to the status of the goddess of the Yakayama Electric Railway. Thousands of people attended her funeral at Kishi Station. In 2015, Tama passed away at 16 years of age. A recording of Tama meowing is played when the train doors open at a station. The front of the train even has cat ears and whiskers.
Tama was even knighted by the Wakayama governor! A Tama-themed line was introduced in 2010, the Tamaden railway, featuring a train decorated with paw prints and cartoons of Tama. In the first year she was stationmaster, ticket sales rose more than 10 percent. Tama was given a stationmaster’s hat and her salary was paid in cat food. She was the first feline stationmaster in Japan - and not the last. Have you ever heard of a cat with a job before? In 2007, a calico cat named Tama was officially named the “Stationmaster of Kishi Station” in Japan’s Wakayama prefecture region. The Massachusetts state cat is the tabby cat.Ī Japanese railway station has a calico cat stationmaster. As you may have guessed, the Maine Coon is the official cat for Maine. have official cat representatives for their official state mammal: Maine, Massachusetts, and Maryland. The rationale? The calico cat’s fur coloring of orange, black, and white are shared by the Maryland state bird, the Baltimore oriole, and the Maryland state insect, the Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly.Īnother fun fact - only three states in the U.S.
In 2001, the calico cat became the official cat for the state of Maryland. Male calico cats are very rare since they only occur as the result of a genetic anomaly.Ĭalico cats are the official state cat of Maryland. Male cats typically only have one X chromosome, so they tend to be either black OR orange, but not both. Black and orange fur are both linked to the X chromosome, and since female cats have two X chromosomes, they can have both colors at once. Without getting into too much detail, calico cats are almost always female since a cat’s coat coloring is linked to genetics. Just like torties, calico cats are most often female. As the ships sailed from port to port, the cats started to travel throughout the world and spread their unique fur and coat pattern genetics, too.
It’s believed that Egyptian merchants took calico cats aboard their ships to help keep their vessels from being overrun with mice and rats. The orange mutant gene that’s found in calicos likely originated from Egypt and was traced to port cities along the Mediterranean Sea in France, Greece, Italy, and Spain. While there’s no way to be 100% certain where they originated from, one study traced calico cats along shipping trade routes in Europe and Northern Africa. Calico cats may have originated from Egypt.Ĭalico cats have been around for a long time.
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