Mau History

A brief introduction to the Egyptian Mau

The Egyptian Mau, as you might suspect, originated in ancient Egypt, a time when cats were worshiped. With the head of a cat the Goddess Bastet was the primary symbol for feminism, and had many temples dedicated to her honour. The Hieroglyphs and paintings that adorned these temples often depict a svelte spotted cat.

The development of the pedigree Egyptian Mau has its routs in 1956 when an exiled Russian Princess, Nathalie Troubetskoy moved to America from Rome taking with her three Egyptian Mau cats, who became the foundation for the breed.These were a silver female Fatima Baba, a bronze male Fatima Jojo, and the third was apparently never bred, immigrated to the United States. Once in America Troubetskoy established her Fatima Cattery and promoted the breed. Many modern Maus can trace their ancestry back to Troubetskoy’s cats.

The Egyptian Mau only arrived in the UK in 1998, and is despite still being a relatively rare breed achieved Provisional Status with the GCCF in 2004.

Appearance

The mau is long, graceful, and muscular with a stride like a cheetah. A unique flap of skin extends from the flank to the back knee, which allows for greater length of stride and agility. The Egyptian mau is the fastest breed of domestic cat, clocked at more than 30 miles per hour.

They are medium-sized cats, and usually weigh 10 to 14 pounds for adult males, and 6 to 10 pounds for adult females. The mau’s head is a slightly rounded wedge shape, with a slight rise from the bridge of the nose to the forehead. The muzzle is neither short nor pointed. The alert ears are medium to large, pointed, broad at the base, and set with ample width between. The large, alert eyes are almond shaped and slightly slanted. Eye color is gooseberry green.

This breed’s most striking feature is the randomly placed, distinctive spotting. Considerable variety exists in placement and shape; the spots can be large or small, round or oblong, irregular or uniform, or in any combination. Regardless, the spots must be vivid and distinct with good contrast between the background and the color of the spots. The face bears tabby barring including mascara lines on the cheeks. The characteristic “M” on the forehead is sometimes described as a scarab beetle mark in reference to the most popular of the magical amulets worn by ancient Egyptians. The legs and tail also possess barring and the tail ends with a dark tip.

The coat is medium-short with a lustrous sheen. Three strikingly beautiful colors are universally accepted – silver spotted, a pale silver ground color with charcoal black spots; bronze spotted, a warm bronze ground color shading to tawny-buff on the sides with dark brown-black spots; and black smoke, a pale silver ground color with all hairs tipped in black with jet black spots. Blue silver, blue smoke, blue spotted, and blue solid, all dilute versions of black, also occasionally occur and can be registered with some associations but not shown for championship.

If you have any questions please take a look at the frequently asked questions section or contact me at kerry@meskhenet.co.uk