Non-profit association
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118 rue de Gassicourt - 78200 Mantes-la-Jolie - France
Tél : +33 1 3O 33 31 79 - Mail : info.fondcombe [at] orange.fr
Egyptian
Maus
New : The Egyptian Mau is also in our books (in English).
History
of this breed dates back at least 4,000 years to Ancient Egypt. The
Egyptian Mau is in fact the cat domesticated from a spotted
sub-species of the African Wild Cat. It is probably the ancestor of
all our domestic cats.
Mau is the Egyptian word for cat. In ancien Egypt, it was nearly a god and cat killers were sentenced to death. Its picture can be found on many hieroglyphs. It still exists as semi wild cat in Egypt.
The exiled Russian princess Nathalie Troubetskoy first imported them from Egypt to Italy in 1954, then to North America in 1956. In the past, all Egyptian Maus traced their ancestry to two of the original imports from her Fatima Cattery.
In the 1950's the British who had admired Egyptian Maus in Egypt or Italy could not import them because of the rabies quarentine. They tried to "re-create" this breed by using abyssinian hybrids, tabby cats and siameses. The result was the spotted Oriental, which of course could not be transferred to CFA or other organizations as a true Egyptian Mau.
The
Mau is the only naturally spotted breed of domestic cat. The Egyptian
Mau shows off an elegant, randomly
spotted body with a skin flap on the belly banded legs and tail,
expressive almond-shaped gooseberry green eyes, distinctive mascara
lines. Hind legs are slightly longer than the front legs. The coat
comes in three colors: silver, bronze and smoke (the black Mau is not
eligible for show ring, but can be registered and used in a breeding
program).
Unfortunately, there are still very few breeders in Europe.
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