CATS HISTORY

Of all the current breeds of cats, the two that have the strongest claim to being the original domestic cat are the Egyptian Mau and Abyssinian. Both have the entermedaitebody structure and wegde - shape head with well -defined facial planes of African Wildcat.Egyptian Mau is spotted tabby, with long legs, slighty longer in back, giving it a raked appearance and making it very fast. It very similar to the African Wildcat with spots instead of stripes. It strongly resembles the cats seen in many Egyptian temple paintings.The Abyssinian has an all-agouti rabbit-like coat and a very wild looking face, and strongly resembles the cats seen in the other paintings.
The probability is that the original cats was a very faintly striped African Wildcat, such as is found around the edges of the deserts even today, which was quickly bred into striped,spotted and all-agouti varieties by man.There also strong evidence to show that the cat was domesticated several times in differing locales, and that the modern cat is actually a composite of these various early domestics.