Tabby patterns do not denote the breed of cat; it is a common coat pattern which can be expressed in any color except white.
The more tabby genes expressed in the coat, the more distinctive and prominent will be the “M” on the forehead.
This offers us a glimpse into the distant past of our housecats; the desert wildcats from 10,000 years ago, in the Near East.
All wild cat subspecies can interbreed, but domestic cats are all genetically contained within F. s. lybica.
This cluster of tabby genes explains the ubiquitous nature of tabby markings; excellent for camouflage, and delightful to the eye. There are four types of tabby. The mackerel tabby has stripes curving around the body from a central stripe down the back, and this is the expression of the wild-type tabby gene. Classic tabbies have swirls in a bullseye or butterfly pattern on their bodies, while ticked tabbies have the striping even on the individual hairs, resulting in a “salt and pepper” look. Spotted tabbies have the stripes broken up into spots, seen on the Abyssinian and Ocicat breeds.
The differences with the ancestral model show up in variations in coat colors, and probably even more curiosity, intelligence, and closeness with people. They wouldn’t have chosen cats with less, would they?
Biologically, the cat is identical to the cats who hunted small game in the Fertile Crescent, a desert environment which influences their diet and behavior in our cats of today. They have a third eyelid, the nictitating membrane, to protect against blowing sand, as does the fine screen of fur covering the entrance to the ear canal that is particularly noticeable in long-haired breeds. The appeal of the litter box is in the sandy texture that mimics their natural habitat. They love heat and fresh water.
All of this science fits well with my own theory; with agriculture came cats. With agriculture came grain storage. With grain storage comes voracious rodents. With rodents we have the hunter without compare, the cat.
So when people noticed that cats had shown up to take care of their rodent problem, it became a matter of survival to keep them around. This was apparently okay with the cat. A certain responsible hedonism is a hallmark of their personality.
How handy, for both of us.
With civilization came organization and specialization which led to jurisprudence, science, and the power to make plastic pouches of snacks we can’t open.
So we do owe the cat a lot.
After all, cats are responsible for civilization as we know it. So if they act a bit entitled… well, they’re entitled.
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There’s more ways to understand our cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my posts on WHY CATS DO THAT.
Plastic pouches of snacks they can’t open or that we can’t open? (They love us for us our thumbs …)
I’ve always wondered: why does an animal bred from the Egyptian desert cat like fish so much? How did they develop a taste for something that they’d have to go into the (ugh!) water to catch?
Well, some cat breeds, like the Turkish Van, actually love water and swimming. And I’ve always felt Mr. Bond’s expressed fondness for seafood stems from his Norwegian Forest Cat heritage. Lots of herring when the fleet was in town!
The seafaring tradition of the “ship’s cat,” as the resident mouser, would have also made fish available to cats without them catching it themselves.
But that doesn’t mean they couldn’t catch it themselves, if the opportunity arose. They have had quite a lot of time to adapt to different environments. They’ve grown longer fur and differing body styles; liking stinky fish might be the least of their adaptation achievements.
Good points! Especially the “ship’s cat” one. While she loves tuna as much as any cat, Miss Kill Kill’s wet food must be poultry-based, just as Byron’s must be tuna-based. And he’s a polydactyl, which were considered lucky by 19th century sailors. Those cats probably would’ve eaten very little but fish.
A quick Googling says that there’s lots of taurine in fish, so maybe cats sense that it’s healthy for them.
But I guess you can learn to like any food, no matter how you were raised. I just had my favorite cuisine, Indian food, and it’s not like I grew up in Mumbai.
It’s interesting that your two cats have such different bases for their consumption. My three will still eat ANY flavor I offer, while being fussy about the brand. But they all grew up in group situations. Nothing like somebody ready to eat your food to make you less picky, maybe?
I’ve had a number of mackerel tabbies in my life, and all of them have had individually striped hairs, as well as the larger stripes.
Of my 2 ex-feral kittens, the girl has a huge fluffy coat- not quite Persian, but more fluffy than any other I’ve had (and fluffier than her mom). She’s kinda striped and kinda tortie (dilute) and has the most prominent M on her forehead I’ve ever seen (I tell her it stands for “minx,” which she is). Her brother is almost twice her size, and somewhere between a mackerel and spotted tabby (no fancy breeds in him, though he does look somewhat bengal-y), and his lighter stripes are definitely ticked, as are his paws etc. His M is not as pronounced as hers, though; I figured it’s because their head shapes are wildly different.
Both of them like water, by the way, and will play in it.
P.S. I LOVE this blog! I’ve learned a lot from you- thanks!
Oh, you are welcome, Amanda.