Meet the Egyptian Mau

As you might have guessed, we Egyptian Maus come from Egypt. What you might not know is that “mau” is the Egyptian word for cat! Since our breed is so old, the humans don’t know our exact ancestry – though, like all cats, we have African wildcat blood. What the humans do know is that we were very popular in ancient Egypt. My ancestors were depicted in ancient Egyptian art, and human archaeologists have found some of them buried in tombs alongside their humans. This, in addition to our regal looks, is where we get the nickname “Pharaoh Cat”!

We also have a lot of unique features that have appealed to the humans over the centuries. We’re the only naturally spotted domestic cat, for one – that means our spots exist without genetic manipulation through breeding. (That’s how Bengals got their spots.) We also have a unique gait because our back legs are longer than our front legs. The humans find this endlessly amusing because it makes us look like we’re walking on tiptoes! We also have a flap of skin that runs from our flank to our knees – just like cheetahs – which is partly why we’re the fastest domestic cat.

As popular as we were in the ancient world, we only became well known in the modern world after Russian princess Nathalie Troubetskoy was given a silver Egyptian Mau kitten named Baba while in exile in Italy. When she moved to America in 1956, she took Baba and two of her kittens with her. She loved our breed so much that she started her own cattery and wrote the breed standard. The Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA) officially recognized us in 1977, and The International Cat Association (TICA) followed suit two years later. While we’re still a relatively rare breed, Mau-lovers worship us almost as much as the ancient Egyptians did!