|
Spotted
Cats
The Egyptian
mau -- along with the Bengal and the ocicat -- is one of a
great speckled trio of pedigreed cats vying for the spotlight
in cat circles today. Like candidates in a crowded primary
field, the advocates of each spotted breed extol its me-only
virtues. The ocicat is the most plentiful wildcat look-alike.
The Bengal actually has a dash of wild blood in its veins.
The Egyptian mau is the oldest spotted breed, the sole naturally
occurring one and the first spotted breed to achieve champion
status in this country. What's more, the mau is the only spotted
breed whose name means cat in Egyptian, and the only
spotted cat whose patron saint was a White Russian princess.
(A fourth spotted contestant, the California spangle cat,
is the only spotted breed introduced to the world via the
Neiman-Marcus Catalog; yet despite its seismic debut, the
spangle has yet to earn the stamp of championship status in
any North American cat registry.)
Party of Four
Egyptian
maus were first brought to the United States in December 1956
by Princess Nathalie Troubetskoy, who had been living in exile
in Italy. Arriving with the princess were three Egyptian maus.
The eldest was Baba, a tall, elegant, tempestuous, 4-year-old,
silver-spotted female. She was accompanied by her 3-year-old
son Giorgio, also known as Jo-Jo, who was a larger,
bronze-colored cat. Also along for the 35-hour ride was their
daughter Liza, an 11-month-old, ocher-color female. The princess
had tried to book passage on the Andrea Doria, the 700-foot,
11-story, unsinkable luxury ship that sank in the Atlantic
Ocean off the coast of New England on July 25, 1956, after
being rammed by the Swedish liner Stockholm. Had the princess
been on board, the mau might not have been the first spotted
breed established in the United States.
Troubetskoy,
who was 59 when she arrived in this country, has been called
"one of the most accomplished and extraordinary persons
ever associated with the cat fancy." That's no exaggeration.
A&E biographies should be so interesting.
Born
in 1897 in Lublin, Poland, where her father was governor of
the province, the princess was a member of one of the oldest,
most influential Russian families. After studying art and
medicine in Moscow, she served as a registered nurse on Russian
battle fronts toward the end of World War I. She was then
transferred to England, where she was a member of the British
Imperial Nursing Service. She lived in England for 20 years,
busying herself with welfare work, lecturing and broadcasting.
Shortly before World War II she moved to Rome. There she served
as chief nurse to the U.S. 2675th Regiment upon its arrival
in Italy. When in Rome she was also secretary-librarian of
the American Church of Santa Susanna, in addition to contributing
articles, including a number of children's stories, to American
and English publications.
The Shoebox Division
While
Princess Troubetskoy was living in Rome, a youngster of her
acquaintance presented her with a spotted-silver female kitten,
whom the young boy had been keeping in a shoebox. The kitten
had been given to the lad by a member of the diplomatic corps
of one of the Mideast embassies for a reason that has been
lost to posterity. The princess named the kitten Baba. Intrigued
by the kitten's unique appearance, the princess sought to
learn more about her background. After discussing the tiny
feline with a veterinarian and several professors, the princess
concluded that the shoebox kitten was an Egyptian mau, a breed
whose tenure on the show bench in Europe predated World War
II. Maus, like most other breeds, had been trampled underfoot
by the jackboots of that war, which had culled the mau population
considerably. When the princess received her kitten, the majority
of the surviving members of the breed were concentrated in
Italy. The princess was so taken with the kitten that she
determined to do what she could to save the breed from extinction
-- or worse yet -- hybridization. She was ultimately successful
in the first regard only.
After
settling in the United States, Princess Troubetskoy registered
a cattery name, Fatima, drew up a standard for her breed,
and enlisted recruits in her campaign to have the mau recognized
for championship competition. To publicize that campaign she
placed Liza on display at the Empire Cat Club show in New
York City in 1957. Because the Egyptian mau population in
the United States was limited, persons working to establish
the breed in this country were obliged to employ some outcrosses
to domestic cats -- and some subsequent inbreeding -- in order
to secure the breed's survival. This strategy was hardly unique
among "purebred" cats during the postwar and other
lean years.
The Egyptian
mau was first accepted by the Cat Fanciers' Federation in
1968. The Canadian Cat Association (CCA) marked the spots
not long afterward, and in 1972 a silver Egyptian mau female
bred by Princess Troubetskoy, Fatima's Ula of Trillium, became
the first mau to win a grand championship in CCA, not to mention
North America.
The
Egyptian Mau Building Code
A graceful,
medium-size cat -- neither cobby nor svelte -- the Egyptian
mau has randomly distributed spots of varying sizes and shapes
on its torso. Its head is slightly rounded, wedge-shaped and
medium in length, without flat planes or full cheeks. A slight
rise from the bridge of the nose to the forehead is visible
in profile. The muzzle is neither short nor pointed.
The mau
has medium-to-large ears, broad at the base, with ample space
between them. Alert, moderately pointed, and sometimes tufted,
the ears continue the planes of the head. The inner ear is
a delicate, almost transparent, shell pink.
The mau's
large to very large eyes are gooseberry green. Almond-shaped
and radiating alertness, they incline slightly toward the
ears.
Because
its hind legs are somewhat longer than its front legs, the
mau looks as if it is poised on tiptoes when it is standing
upright. Its coat is medium long, has a lustrous sheen, and
comes in silver, bronze and smoke, which is sometimes referred
to as black smoke. Silver is by far the most popular color.
The mau
is adorned with randomly distributed spots, which come in
charcoal, dark brown-black and jet black on backgrounds of
pale silver (in the silver), light brown (in the bronze) and
charcoal gray with silver undercoat (in the smoke). The spots
on a mau should be distinct and should not run together in
a broken mackerel pattern. The mau's coat is medium in length,
silky, fine, dense and resilient.
Egyptian Mau Personality Profile
Like their
matriarch Baba, one of the first Egyptian maus to reach the
United States, the earliest maus were, in the words of one
observer, "unpredictable, fiery and wild-natured."
They did not accept other cats readily and did not feel at
home anyplace but home. Through careful breeding those who
championed the mau in this country produced a more docile
cat, and today the Egyptian mau is companionable as well as
curious, charming instead of contrarious. Maus have sweet
voices and a demonstrable fondness for home, hearth and tranquillity.
Egyptian Mau
Status Quo
Cats in
general and at least two breeds in particular — the Egyptian
mau and the Abyssinian — are said to have descended from
wild cats first domesticated by the Egyptians roughly 4,000
years ago, give or take a few dynasties. Advocates of both
the mau and the Abyssinian point to renderings of cats in
Egyptian art, including tomb paintings, as proof that their
cats' ancestors were alive and well-cared for in "ancient"
Egypt.
At the
risk of sounding captious, one must observe that a 4,000-
year-old drawing or painting of a cat that resembles a cat
living today does not prove paternity or direct descent. It
does prove, however, that cats resembling modern-day cats
were alive a long time ago in Egypt.
What are
even more interesting and verifiable, however, are reports
about the status of cats in Egypt today that have appeared
from time to time in newspaper and television reports in the
United States during the last 10 years. According to those
reports, "cats are not held in the same high regard as
they once were" in Egypt. Consequently they are forced
to scavenge for food and have become something of a nuisance,
particularly in Cairo, a city which they are reported to have
overrun.
Curious
about these reports, Cats & Kittens obtained an
interview with a member of the Egyptian embassy in Washington,
D.C.
Cats & Kittens: The following statements appeared
in a 1989 newspaper article about cats in Egypt. Would you
please tell me if those statements are still true today: "Cats
prowl the corridors of power in the foreign ministry, where
after hours they can be seen lounging on the delicately carved,
gilt antique settees in the diplomatic waiting rooms."
Also, "cats cavort on stage at the national theater,
where more than once they have upstaged a performance."
Egyptian
Embassy: It is not true that cats crawl around the foreign
ministry or cavort on the stage at the national theater. This
is familiar journalistic hype, but reports about the seriousness
of the runaway cat population in Cairo are true.
CK:
Where would a visitor be most likely to see cats in Cairo?
EE:
Cats can be seen almost anywhere in Cairo, but not in the
epidemic proportions that some newspaper reports suggest.
The Cairo Zoo has a special section for cats.
CK:
Are there many people who feed groups of stray cats in Cairo?
EE:
Egyptians are generally kind to cats. Even children like to
feed stray cats.
CK:
Are there any licensing laws or other kinds of laws regarding
cats in Egypt?
EE:
There are some laws governing cats in Egypt, but they are
not often enforced.
CK:
Are there monuments in Cairo that recall the days when cats
were revered as sacred in Egypt?
EE:
The cat was depicted on a number of Ramses-side stelae found
in the Theban region. Large numbers of sacred cats were mummified
and deposited in underground galleries at some sites such
as Tel Basta at the town of Zagazig, east of Cairo. Numerous
bronze votive statuettes have also survived including the
Gayer-Anderson cat, which is now in the collection of the
British Museum.
CK:
In the article I mentioned earlier, a veterinarian said there
must be "five or six cats for every house in Cairo, at
the very least." Is that statement accurate?
EE:
Like middle-class Americans, Egyptians who keep cats have
one or two, but the practice is not widespread; and cat-keeping
is largely confined to members of the upper middle class,
which is a tiny minority.
CK:
Is it true that nobody will touch a cat in Egypt? That in
the villages people are afraid of cats, afraid to harm them
or to anger them because cats are sacred in Egypt?
EE:
Among simple people in villages there is still a certain "spookiness"
surrounding cats. That reverence is a residue of ancient Egypt
when cat cults were numerous.
CK:
Are most Egyptian cats apricot in color?
EE:
Yes, but cats of all colors exist in Egypt as well because
of crossbreeding.
CK:
A CNN report two years ago said that most Egyptians today
seem oblivious to the fact that they are sitting on the cat's
cradle of civilization. Is that accurate?
EE:
Although sentiments toward cats are conditioned by tradition
in this country, average Egyptians are not fully aware of
the sacred history of cats in this country.
|
www.catsandkittens.com
