The Tuxedo Cat Is Not A Breed!

The tuxedo cat is in fact, not a breed at all, but a black and white bicolor coat pattern.

As the name suggests, these kitties seem to be wearing a tuxedo. But what truly makes a cat a tuxedo cat?

First of all, a tuxedo-cat is a bicolor cat. But, these kitties only come in black and white.

For a cat to be a tuxedo cat, she must have solid black throughout most of her body with white patches on her chin, throat, chest, belly, and paws.

Occasionally a tuxedo cat will have the ultimate accompaniment to their fancy attire in the form of a mustache.

That Clark Gable look is very hard to resist.

The rarest of tuxedo cats sport a black patch on the white chest that resembles a bowtie.

These cats are referred to as "black ties" and are considered to be lucky in bringing wealth to their household.

Tuxedo cats are sometimes referred to as "Jellicle cats" from the T.S. Elliot poem "The Song of the Jellicles" from his unusual book "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats"

In the original book written in 1930, T.S. Elliot describes Jellicle Cats as black and white, but in the popular Broadway musical "Cats" based on the book, the Jellicles come in an assortment of colors.

Yet, T.S. Elliot was probably right, formal attire seems so apropos for a night at the theater...

Tuxedo cat fans will tell you that cats with this color pattern tend to be relaxed, happy, and dog-like in personality.

Their reputation suggests they possess superior intelligence and an outgoing, often quite vocal personality. Remember Sylvester the Cat? He was a tuxedo of course!

Adorable in their fancy attire, tuxedo kittens are born with their perfect markings already in place.

Like adult tuxedos, these kittens tend to be friendly and out-going and may wander less than other types of kittens, being somewhat laid-back.

In appearance, the Tuxedo kitten is basically a miniature adult.

They tend to grow at an average rate and reach mature height at about 6 months, filling out and maturing to full size and weight at about one year old.

Famous Tuxes include:

Mr. Mistoffeles, the character who sang and danced in “Cats,” is not the only famous tuxedo-clad kitty.

Sylvester and Felix were fictional felines who wore tuxes

Socks was a real kitty who lived in the White House with the Clintons

In World War II, a tux named Simon was awarded a medal for protecting the soldiers’ scant food supply aboard ship in the South Pacific!

Other well known cartoon bicolor cats include:

Krazy Kat, Jess from Postman Pat, Kitty Softpaws from the Shrek spin-off Puss in Boots, Figaro, Beans, Sebastian the cat from Josie and the Pussycats and Sylvester. A bicolor cat named Mittens is one of the main characters in the 2008 Disney animated film Bolt. Aldwyn from The Familiars is a tuxedo cat, while Meowrice (voiced by Paul Frees) from Gay Purr-ee is a bicolor. A tuxedo cat is also the protagonist of the popular children's book Tip-Top Cat.

A tuxedo cat is one of the three types of cats in the video game Minecraft.

Over 70% of all the cats pictured in Egyptian royal tombs are tuxedo cats.

The first cat in the new world was a Tuxedo cat named Asgerd who accompanied (some literature indicates she led) early Viking expeditions to the North American continent.

A TC earned an Olympic silver medal in the 1960 winter Olympics as a member of the Swiss four man (three man and one cat) bobsled team.

The award is still under dispute after a protest was filed by the Alaskan team, which consisted of three men and a Malamute dog. They claimed that the TCs raised tail created a favorable windspeed factor, which gave an unfair advantage to the Swiss team.