I saw a documentary a while ago that said orange cats were created in ancient egypt as part of a massive distributed breeding programme to provide cats as sacrifices. Apparently this is when cats were selected to be more social, because they were being raised in cages with minimal personal space. And their lifestyle more like livestock than independent contractors on mouse duty, including significant contact with and reliance on humans. Gold was associated with Sun and Ra, so these colorings were selected because it was hypothesized to be more eye catching to the deity, who might notice your sacrificial cat and help you out. They said most of the genetic differences between wild and domesticated cats can be accounted for by this event. Those changes spread back to the rest of the domesticated cat population. But it’s worth remembering that your orange cat was bred to have some spiritual elevation and communication with gods.