Neat Facts and Lore About Tabby Cats

In Corpus Christi, Texas, you can find a unique cat shelter called The Cattery, which provides a unique alternative to conventional animal shelters. It offers a compassionate, no-kill, cage-free refuge for cats in need, including those who are homeless, abused, or abandoned.

Their primary mission is to secure permanent, loving homes for these feline residents. Additionally, The Cattery actively engages in community outreach to raise awareness about animal welfare, the perils of pet overpopulation, and the joys of fostering human-animal bonds.

What’s even better for us is they have an amazing TikTok channel that sometimes provides neat cat facts, like this one about tabbies:

“Tabby is not a breed, but a coat pattern. Tabby cats belong to various breeds, including Domestic, Shorthair, Main Coon and even Siamese.

Tabbies come in four main coat patterns: mackerel, classic or marble, spotted, or ticked, sometimes called agouti tabby.

Cats often retain strong hunting instincts, and the word tabby itself may have descended from the word ‘atabi’, which was a beautiful striped silk imported to England from the Middle East.

Tabby cats often have a distinctive M shape on their foreheads, which actually has a few very interesting legends behind it. One Legend is that the M stands for Mao, which is the Egyptian word for cat.

An Islamic story says that Muhammad loved his tabby cat Muezza so much that one day his cat fell asleep on one of his sleeves and he cut his sleeve away to avoid waking his cat. It is said that the Prophet gave the M to all future tabbies to remind the world to respect our feline friends.

And interestingly enough, another religious story about tabby cats has to do with Mother Mary. It is said that a tabby cat climbed into the manger and snuggled the baby Jesus to warm him and purred to calm him, to which Mary stroked the cat’s brow, leaving behind an M to forever remind humanity that cats are kind and good.”

@thecatterycc Why do tabby cats have an M? Very interesting legends 🐱🤔🔎 #neatcatfacts #tabby #tabbycats #cats #themoreyouknow #interesting #legends #tabbycat ♬ Wes Anderson-esque Cute Acoustic – Kenji Ueda