Why Tabby Cats Have The“M” on Their Forehead?
The most common question that comes to our head when we talk about ‘Tabby Cats’ is that whether it is a breed or just the pattern of their fur? So it is a fur or coat pattern for various breeds of cat. Even Tabby cats have different coat patterns. The most common mark of a Tabby cat is that it has a mark of ‘M’ on its forehead
Why Tabby?
The word tabby comes from ‘Atabi’ which is striped silk made in Attabiah in the Middle East. Further when this silk was brought to Britain then the cat was named ‘tabi cat’ due to similarity in coat pattern with ‘tiger cat’ which was further refined as a tabby cat
Let’s briefly have a glance at the type of tabby cats according to fur pattern known:-
MACKEREL TABBY CAT:- It has narrow stripes all over its body, rings around the tail and legs resembling ‘mackerel fish’
CLASSIC/BLOTCHED/MARBLED TABBY CAT:- The stripes they have are similar to that of mackerel tabby cat, it is just that the stripes on them are wider.
THE SPOTTY TABBY CAT:- These instead of strong lines have a series of spots of different sizes over their body which may resemble the above two types. The fur is mostly of light colour
Ticked Tabby cat:- These cats barely have any marking over their body except over their face, legs and tail. When closely observed the fur is light and dark coloured. One of the examples of ticked tabbies is Abyssinian cats.
Why Tabby Cats Have an “M” on Their Forehead?
Even after having different coat patterns the mark ‘M’ on the forehead distinguishes Tabby cats from others. There are different stories about the mark ‘M’ they have. Let us have a look at a few popular ones:
Mau: It is said that M stands for ‘Mau’, what Egyptians called their carts.
The Christen Belief:- There is a story which says after giving birth to Jesus Christ mother Mary rested Jesus Christ manger and laid down to gather some strength. At that point, Jesus Christ was not comfortable due to hay in the manger and was crying continuously. It was then when a stray cat jumped into his manger and slept beside him which made baby Jesus stop crying. In response to this mother, Mary touched the cat on its forehead out of gratitude leaving a mark of M.
The Muslim Belief:- There are numerous stories telling how much Prophet Mohammad loved cats. It is also believed that Prophet Mohammad’s favourite cat named Meuzza save his life from snake poison.
There is a story that also says once Meuzza felt asleep on a shelf with its robe in Prophet Mohammad’s hand. In the meanwhile, he had to go for his prayers but also didn’t want to wake up his cat. So he decided to cut his sleeves.
Therefore it is believed that the M stands for Mohammad.
Mother:- It is a recent belief by a writer and animal welfare advocate Jim Willis, in his story ‘Beloved of Bast’ that the letter M comes from a cat named Mother who is visited by Bast, a cat of sun Goddess Ra.
