Watermark: The Tabby Cat

Boo would like to tell you about grey tabby cats -- especially since Spike had his say about orange cats awhile back.

The word TABBY, is thought to be derived from the word ATABI, which is a type of silk manufactured in the Attabiah region of Baghdad. They exported quantities of this fabric to England, where the striped pattern was compared to the striping on the ‘tiger’ cat. This type of cat then became known as the TABBI, which was later modified to TABBY.

The history of the tabby pattern is complicated. The modern domestic cat appears to have developed from the African Wild Cat in Egypt. It was taken to ancient Greece and Rome by traders, and from there spread across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. In the progress, it bred with other wild cats, and eventually, the modern tabby is a dilution of what it was at the beginning . . .

. . . all domestic cats carry the tabby gene. If the tabby markings are not visible, it is because the coat color is masking it.

About Cats says:

Tabbies are so ubiquitous that many people think of them as a breed. Not so; the tabby is a color pattern - most often stripes, but sometimes stripes and whorls, or even spots and stripes.

Boo wants to be sure you understand that grey tabbies are ubiquitous because they are so useful:

Tabby cat washing clothes with a washboard and a bucket

I must say, Boo has never washed my clothes. But grey tabbies do inspire artists and musicians. In fact, The Dubliners' Tabby Cats combine Cats, Celtic Music, and Drinking Songs into one of the most-creative music groups of the 21st century.

Like all of our kitty friends, tabbies are descended from wilder ancestors. The Cat Site reminds us:

The tabby pattern with its different variations is the most common coat pattern in the wild. The tiger is a striped tabby, the leopard is a spotted tabby, and the lion is a tabby agouti . . .

This pattern appears especially useful as camouflage for the different feline predators. Hiding behind the grass blades of the African savannah, or in the branches of a leafed tree, spots and stripes can make a cat virtually invisible to its prey.

Boo says this wildness has not been bred out of our little domestic tabbies: